GIFT   OF 
M.  Gr.  Luck 


SENTENCES  AND 
THINKING 

A  PRACTICE  BOOK  IN  SENTENCE  MAKING 
BY 

NORMAN  FOERSTER 

PROFESSOR   OF  ENGLISH 
UNIVERSITY  OF   NORTH  CAROLINA 

AND 

J.  M.  STEADMAN,  JR. 

ASSOCIATE  PROFESSOR   OF  ENGLISH 
EMORY  UNIVERSITY 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
BOSTON       NEW  YORK       CHICAGO 


COPYRIGHT,  1919,  BY  NORMAN  FOERSTER 
AND  J.  M.  STEADMAN,  JR. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


C. 


CAMBRIDGE  '  MASSACHUSETTS 
U  '  S*  A 


1  /y 


PREFACE 

Sentences  and  Thinking  is  a  textbook  for  the  first  term  of 
Freshman  English.  Although  it  could  be  used  as  a  review 
of  fundamentals  at  the  end  of  the  high  school  course,  it  is 
designed  primarily  for  the  college  freshman,  who  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  mastered  fundamentals  in  com- 
position, but  who  nevertheless  tends  to  regard  himself  as 
sufficiently  acquainted  with  unity,  coherence,  and  em- 
phasis. It  is  true  that  the  large  rhetorics  are  also  designed 
for  the  college  freshman;  but  too  often  they  are  obsessed 
with  the  sacred  need  of  comprehensiveness,  or  adhere  to 
the  language  and  modes  of  thought  of  the  old  mechanical 
rhetoric.  The  authors  of  this  little  book,  instead  of  seeking 
comprehensiveness,  have  sought  absolute  essentials;  in- 
stead of  following  tradition  blindly,  have  worked  out  a  new 
approach  to  Freshman  rhetoric  —  the  substance  being  old, 
of  course,  but  the  mode  of  presentation,  it  is  hoped,  fresh 
and  attractive  because  it  is  philosophical  in  a  simple  way. 
When  the  freshman  comes  to  college,  he  is  prepared  to  ex- 
change his  excellent  high  school  conviction  "  that  authority 
is  the  soundest  basis  of  belief  "  for  the  equally  excellent 
college  conviction  that  blind  faith  is  "  the  one  unpardonable 
sin  "  and  independent  inquiry  into  the  nature  of  things  the 
prerequisite  to  all  progress.  We  have  asked  the  freshman, 
not  to  master  "  rules,"  but  to  think  out  the  reasons  behind 
the  rules  in  terms  of  the  psychology  of  the  human  mind. 

Chapter  I,  "  Sentences  and  Punctuation,"  deals  with  the 
appalling  blunders  in  sentence  construction  that  abound 

M41883 


iv      ,  PREFACE 

during  the  first  month  of  the  course.  Chapter  II,  "  Sen- 
tences and  Thinking,"  the  core  of  the  book,  is  a  connected, 
constructive  account  of  the  principles  of  subordination, 
parallelism,  emphasis,  etc.  A  third  chapter,  on  "  Summary 
Sentences,"  offers  material  for  training  in  the  construction 
of  sentences  through  a  special  kind  of  paragraph  analysis. 
Finally,  "A  List  of  Common  Errors"  will  enable  the  in- 
structor, if  he  so  desires,  to  use  the  book,  not  in  addition  to 
the  usual  rhetoric  during  the  first  few  months  of  the  course, 
but  in  place  of  it  throughout  the  year. 


CONTENTS 

I.  SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

1.  What  the  Sentence  is I 

2.  The  Skeleton  of  the  Sentence   ....  2 

3.  Phrases  and  Clauses 5 

4.  The  Cardinal  Error  in  Sentence  Structure   .  8 

5.  Misuse  of  Conjunctions      .       .       .       .  r    .  12 

6.  Punctuation 15 

II.  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

1.  Subordination 27 

2.  Parallelism 37 

3.  Emphasis  .       . 45 

4.  Economy 56 

5.  Vagueness 61 

III.  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 76 

IV.  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 92 


SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

CHAPTER  I 
SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

I.  What  the  sentence  is.  The  sentence,  as  the  thought- 
unit,  is  the  starting-point  for  the  study  of  composition. 
It  should  be  regarded,  at  the  outset,  not  as  the  result  of  a 
mechanical  manipulation  of  grammatical  elements,  but  as 
an  organism,  an  organic  whole,  reproducing  in  words  a 
thought  in  the  mind,  as  a  photograph  reproduces  a  scene. 
It  is  always  our  first  concern  to  see  the  thought  clearly,  to 
get  it  clearly  focused  in  our  minds;  to  this  everything  else 
is  secondary,  —  the  "  grammar,"  the  "  parts  of  speech," 
the  "  syntax  "  that  are  so  often  the  bugbear  of  the  student 
because  they  are  approached  wrongly.  In  the  discussion 
that  follows,  we  shall  look  first  to  the  thought. 

What  is  a  sentence?  It  is  a  group  of  words  expressing  a 
complete  thought.1  It  must  omit  nothing  that  is  essential 
to  the  completeness  of  the  thought;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
it  must  admit  nothing  that  is  not  essential  to  the  thought. 
It  must  be  a  unit,  no  less,  no  more.  There  are  conse- 
quently two  fundamental  tests  for  the  unity  of  a  sentence: 

Test  I:  Does  it  express  a  complete  thought?  In  an  ex- 
amination paper  a  student  wrote:  "Milton  thought  that 
man  should  be  humble,  obedient,  and  thankful  toward 
God.  Observing  and  obeying  his  laws."  Did  the  student 
really  suppose  that  the  last  group  of  words,  "  Observing 

1  It  begins  with  a  capital  letter  and  is  followed  by  a  period  —  this 
distinguishes  it  from  an  independent  clause  (see  pp.  5-6). 


2     SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

and  obeying  his  laws/'  constituted  a  sentence?     It  is  mani- 
festly incomplete;  it  is  less  than  a  unit. 

Test  II:  Does  it  contain  foreign  matter  —  does  it  go  be- 
yond completeness  and  give  us  matter  quite  unnecessary 
for  the  expression  of  the  thought?  Consider  this  sentence: 
"  At  last,  on  the  4th  of  August,  1914,  England  declared  war 
on  Germany,  where  I  spent  six  weeks  some  years  ago." 
We  do  not  mind  learning  from  the  writer  that  he  spent  six 
weeks  in  Germany,  but  at  this  moment  the  information  is 
decidedly  out  of  place,  because  it  distracts  from  the  main 
idea;  it  violates  the  unity  of  the  sentence. 

What  we  want,  then,  is  the  whole  truth  and  nothing  but 
the  truth;  the  whole  thought  and  nothing  but  the  thought. 

EXERCISE  I 

Point  out  the  violation  of  unity  in  the  following  sen- 
tences and  indicate  whether  the  lack  of  unity  is  due  to 
incompleteness  or  to  overcompleteness.  Apply  the  two 
tests  given  above. 

1.  He  works  hard  and  keeps  regular  hours.     While  his  brother 
is  a  worthless  spendthrift. 

2.  The  peasants  wear  curiously-shaped  flat  caps,  and  grow  huge 
crops  of  buckwheat. 

3.  In  his  youth  he  read  widely  among  the  best  books.    Thereby 
increasing  both  his  reading  and  his  speaking  vocabulary. 

4.  Chaucer,  the  first  English  artist  in  poetry,  ushered  in  the 
modern  period  of  English  literature,  and  had  a  beard  the 
color  of  wheat  straw. 

5.  The  wagons  were  loaded  heavily,  and  the  new  road  was  not 
completed. 

2.  The  skeleton  of  the  sentence.  Grammatically  con- 
sidered, every  sentence  consists  of  a  subject  —  something 


THE  SKELETON  OF  THE  SENTENCE    3 

named  —  and  a  predicate  —  something  asserted  as  true  of 
the  thing  named.  \  Or  we  may  say  that  every  sentence  con- 
tains a  subject  and  a  verb.  A  verb  should  be  carefully  dis- 
tinguished from  a  verbal  noun  (infinitive  or  gerund)  or  a 
verbal  adjective  (participle).  A  verbal  noun  or  adjective  is 
a  noun  or  an  adjective  derived  from  a  verb.  Its  function 
in  the  sentence  is  that  of  a  noun  or  an  adjective;  it  names 
something  or  it  describes  or  limits  something  named.  This 
difference  in  use  is  illustrated  in  the  following  sentences: 

The  National  Highway  runs  through  the  center  of  our  town. 

Running  is  good  exercise. 

To  run  three  miles  at  a  stretch  requires  good  lungs. 

In  the  first  sentence  runs  is  a  verb;  it  makes  an  assertion 
concerning  the  subject.  In  the  other  sentences  running 
and  (to)  run  are  verbal  nouns.  Although  they  are  derived 
from  the  verb  run,  they  are  used  just  as  simple  nouns,  base- 
ball, tennis,  for  example,  would  be  used  in  these  sentences. 

Running  water  is  purer  than  stagnant  water. 

In  this  sentence  running  is  a  verbal  adjective.  It  is  used 
in  the  sentence  in  precisely  the  same  way  that  the  simple 
adjective  stagnant  is  used. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  a  verb  asserts  an  action  concern- 
ing the  subject,  whereas  a  verbal  noun  or  adjective  names 
something  or  describes  it.  In  the  following  sentences  ver- 
bals are  incorrectly  used  as  verbs: 

There  I  enjoyed  myself  very  much.  Visiting  all  the  theaters 
and  seeing  all  the  exhibits. 

One  reason  I  like  this  book  is  that  it  is  written  in  very  simpl . 
language.  Therefore  making  it  very  easy  to  read. 

"  I  think  I  '11  lie  down  a  minute,"  he  said.  Forthwith  springing 
up  and  flinging  himself  on  the  sofa  near  the  window. 

He  tried  to  write  his  letters  with  great  care.  To  make  them 
neat  and  presentable  in  appearance. 


4  SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

In  this  year,  although  each  retaining  its  former  powers,  Austria 
and  Hungary  agreed  to  establish  a  common  administration. 

Every  sentence,  then,  whether  short  or  long,  whether 
simple  or  complex,  must  contain  a  subject  and  a  verb. 
These  are  the  essential  elements  of  the  sentence  —  the 
backbone,  the  skeleton,  of  every  sentence.  ^Either  subject 
or  verb,  or  both,  may  be  qualified  or  modified  by  the  addi- 
tion of  other  words;  but  no  matter  how  much  may  be 
added  to  the  skeleton  of  the  sentence  the  skeleton  itself 
remains  the  same. 

EXERCISE  II 

Point  out  the  skeleton  (the  simple  subject  and  verb)  of 
the  following  sentences: 

1.  All  summer  the  trip  had  been  discussed. 

2.  Accompanied  by  a  friend,  I  visited  the  Exposition  grounds. 

3.  Have  you  spoken  to  him  about  our  plan? 

4.  Not  a  drop  of  rain  had  yet  fallen. 

5.  Are  you  going  now? 

6.  Of  the  assistants,  he  alone  slept  in  the  house. 

7.  She  took  up  the  pencil  without  moving  the  book. 

8.  What  time  did  he  say  that  he  would  come  back? 

9.  And  in  the  innocence  of  childhood  she  believed  him. 

10.  There  are  many  reasons  for  my  answer. 

11.  The  words  were  interrupted  by  the  sound  of  groans  beyond 
the  door  leading  to  the  bedrooms. 

12.  The  change  from  the  customary  spot  and  the  necessary  occa- 
sion of  such  an  act  —  from  the  dressing  hour  in  a  bedroom 
to  a  time  of  traveling  out-of-doors  —  lent  a  novelty  to  the 
idle  deed. 

13.  Through  a  spur  of  this  ridge,  from  the  Downs  to  the  castle, 
the  old  home  of  the  family,  ran  a  dusty  and  rocky  road. 

14.  I,  James  Woods,  President  of  Walker  College,  by  virtue 


PHRASES  AND  CLAUSES  5 

of  the  authority  vested  in  me  by  the  Faculty  and  Trustees 
of  this  institution,  am  authorized  to  confer  the  following 
degrees. 

15.  The  girl  on  the  summit  of  the  load  sat  motionless,  sur- 
rounded by  tables  and  chairs  with  their  legs  upward,  backed 
by  an  oak  settle,  and  ornamented  in  front  by  pots  of  gerani- 
ums, myrtles,  and  cactuses,  together  with  a  caged  canary,  — 
all  probably  from  the  windows  of  the  house  just  vacated. 

3.  Phrases  and  clauses.  There  are  certain  groups  of 
words  which  are  sometimes  used  as  the  equivalents  of 
nouns,  verbs,  adjectives,  adverbs,  etc.  and  which  are  often 
confused  with  sentences.  These  word  groups  are  called 
phrases  and  clauses. 

A  group  of  logically  connected  words  not  containing  a 
subject  and  a  predicate  is  called  a  phrase.  Since  the  phrase 
does  not  contain  both  of  the  necessary  elements  of  a  com- 
plete thought,  it  should  never,  of  course,  be  used  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  sentence.  A  phrase  is  often  the  equivalent 
of  one  of  the  elements  of  a  sentence,  of  subject  or  of  predi- 
cate, but  is  never  the  equivalent  of  both. 

A  group  of  words  containing  both  a  subject  and  a  predi- 
cate and  forming  part  of  a  sentence  is  a  clause.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  a  clause  expresses  an  idea  more  nearly  complete 
than  the  idea  conveyed  by  a  phrase.  Since  the  clause  con- 
tains both  subject  and  verb,  it  might  be  supposed  that  it 
expresses  a  complete  idea,  a  thought-unit.  What,  then, 
distinguishes  the  clause  from  the  sentence?  The  sentence 
expresses  a  complete  thought,  the  clause  only  a  part  of  a 
complete  thought. 

Clauses  are  classed  as  dependent  or  as  independent 
according  to  the  relation  of  the  thought  of  the  clause  to 
the  complete  thought  of  the  sentence  in  which  the  clause 
stands.  If  the  clause  expresses  a  thought  which  is  not 


6  SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

perfectly  clear  and  definite  in  itself,  but  which  depends 
upon  the  thought  of  the  rest  of  the  sentence,  it  is  called  a 
dependent  clause.  A  dependent  clause  is  meaningless  when 
it  is  taken  by  itself.  The  clauses  "  What  I  said,"  "  Until 
the  road  was  cleared,"  "  That  he  has  made  a  mistake  "  con- 
vey no  complete  idea;  they  depend  for  their  meaning  upon 
the  rest  of  the  sentence  in  which  they  occur: 

He  did  not  hear  what  I  said. 

We  waited  patiently  until  the  road  was  cleared. 

That  he  has  made  a  mistake  is  perfectly  obvious. 

These  dependent  clauses  resemble  phrases  (i)  because  the 
idea  expressed  is  not  complete  in  itself,  and  (2)  because  the 
grammatical  construction  of  both  is  that  of  a  single  word: 
direct  object,  adverb,  subject  of  verb,  etc. 

An  independent  clause  is  a  group  of  words  containing  a 
subject  and  a  verb  and  capable  of  standing  alone  as  a  sim- 
ple sentence.  "The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  firmament  showeth  his  handiwork."  Each  of  these 
clauses  makes  a  clear  and  definite  statement,  and  if  written 
alone,  each  would  express  a  complete  thought.  The  use 
of  the  comma  and  the  conjunction  and,  however,  makes  a 
compound  sentence  of  the  two  clauses.  The  thought  unit 
of  this  sentence,  then,  is  composed  of  two  equal  and  logically 
related  parts,  each  of  which  could  stand  alone  as  a  complete 
sentence.  Whether  such  a  group  of  words  is  a  sentence  or 
an  independent  clause  depends  entirely  upon  the  way  it  is 
used.  If  it  stands  alone,  it  is  a  sentence;  if  it  is  used  as  a 
part  of  a  larger  unit  of  thought,  it  is  an  independent  clause. 

Test:  If  we  wish  to  pick  out  the  independent  clauses  in  a 
given  sentence,  we  examine  each  clause  to  find  out  whether 
it  could  be  written  as  a  separate  and  complete  sentence. 
If  the  clause  can  be  so  written,  it  is  independent. 


PHRASES  AND  CLAUSES  7 

EXERCISE  III 

A.  Point  out  the  dependent  and  the  independent  clauses 
in  the  following  sentences: 

1.  I  saw  him,  but  he  did  not  see  me. 

2.  James  was  there,  Jonathan  was  there,  but  Henry  was  not 
there. 

3.  When  night  falls,  the  lake  seems  twice  as  wide. 

4.  The  lake  seems  twice  as  wide  when  night  falls. 

5.  Little  men  endure  little  men;  but  great  men  aim  at  a  solitary 
grandeur. 

6.  The  wild  goose  is  more  of  a  cosmopolite  than  we;  he  breaks 
his  fast  in  Canada,  takes  a  luncheon  in  Ohio,  and  plumes 
himself  for  the  night  in  a  Southern  bayou. 

7.  He  intended  to  be  gone  a  year,  but  returned  at  the  end  of 
two  months,  harshly  criticizing  his  folly  in  leaving  home. 

8.  When  we  try  to  pick  out  anything  by  itself,  we  find  it 
hitched  to  everything  else  in  the  universe. 

9.  As  he  reflected  upon  the  matter  now,  scowling  at  the  picture 
on  the  wall,  he  remembered  his  first  trip  to  her  home. 

10.  But  some  thoughtful  person,  who  had  seen  him  walking 
across  one  of  his  fields,  might  have  regarded  him  in  another 
light. 

11.  When  the  weather  is  fair  and  settled,  they  are  clothed  in 
blue  and  purple,  and  print  their  bold  outlines  on  the  clear 
evening  sky;  but  sometimes,  when  the  rest  of  the  landscape 
is  cloudless,  they  will  gather  a  hood  of  gray  vapors  about 
their  summits,  which,  in  the  last  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  will 
glow  and  light  up  like  a  crown  of  glory. 

12.  The  British  worker  might  or  might  not  be  convinced  of 
Henry  George's  contention  that  the  power  of  the  landlord  to 
extort  rent  was  the  cause  of  increasing  or  continuing  poverty 
in  the  midst  of  increasing  wealth;  he  was  in  any  case  likely 
to  be  strongly  moved  by  the  contention  that  poverty  in- 
creased side  by  side  with  wealth,  that  it  increased  because 
the  increasing  wealth  was  more  and  more  unequally  dis- 


8  SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

tributed,  and  that  the  evil  arose  from  human  law  and  not 
from  inevitable  forces  of  nature. 

B.  Compose  three  sentences  consisting  of  two  or  more 
independent  clauses.  Compose  three  consisting  of  com- 
binations of  dependent  and  independent  clauses. 

4.  The  cardinal  error  in  sentence  structure.  The  un- 
pardonable sin  in  English  composition  is  ignorance  of  what 
a  sentence  is.  The  student  who  displays  this  ignorance 
does  more  than  confess  himself  untaught  and  unlearned  — 
he  brands  himself  as  illiterate.  Until  he  masters  this  ele- 
mentary conception,  he  can  never  hope  to  write  effective, 
or  even  decent,  sentences.  Ignorance  of  what  a  sentence 
is  may  show  itself  in  two  common  forms: 

a.  Comma-for-period.     The  so-called  "  comma  fault  "  or 
illiterate  comma  "  is  the  writing  of  two  or  more  sentences 

as  if  they  were  one  —  the  use  of  a  comma  where  a  period 

is  needed.1 

Wrong:  He  said  he  would  come,  when  others  would  invent  ex- 
cuses he  keeps  his  word. 

These  are  manifestly  two  separate  sentences,  and  should, 
of  course,  be  followed  by  periods,  not  commas: 

Right:  He  said  he  would  come.      When  others  would  invent 
excuses  he  keeps  his  word. 

EXERCISE  IV 

Correct  the  "  comma  fault "  in  the  following  sentences : 

I.  I  had  now  come  in  sight  of  the  house,  I  decided  to  wait  no 
longer. 

1  Frequently  the  semicolon  may  be  used  instead  of  a  period,  or  a  comma 
with  a  simple  coordinating  conjunction,  and  sometimes,  when  the 
clauses  are  snort,  contain  no  interior  punctuation,  and  express  intimately 
related  ideas,  the  comma  alone  is  permissible.  But  of  course  any  one  who 
has  not  yet  mastered  the  "  comma  fault "  should  concentrate  his  atten- 
tion on  the  basic  distinction  between  comma  and  period. 


EXERCISE  IN  COMMA  FAULT  9 

2.  Kipling  wrote  "The  Man  Who  Was,"  this  is  an  excellent 
short  story. 

3.  In  the  evening  we  reached  a  village,  I  determined  to  spend 
the  night  there. 

4.  "Well,  good-bye,"  he  said,"  I'll  see  you  again  soon,  I  hope." 

5.  There  is  something  in  the  very  season  of  the  year  that  gives 
a  charm  to  the  festivity  of  Christmas,  at  other  times  we 
derive  a  great  portion  of  our  pleasure  from  the  mere  beauties 
of  nature. 

6.  The  climax  is  the  crucial  point  in  a  narrative,  of  this  the 
author  must  have  a  definite  idea  before  he  begins  to  write  a 
word. 

7.  A  thought  seemed  to  strike  him,  the  island  had  been  left 
behind  and  the  shore  lay  far  off  in  the  hazy  sunlight. 

8.  These  orders  were  sufficient,  as  I  well  knew,  they  could  not 
return  before  morning. 

9.  Furthermore,  the  people  who  constitute  the  National  Gov- 
ernment also  constitute  the  various  states,  the  people  gave 
to  the  National  Government  its  powers. 

10.  "  Watch  this  pitcher,"  I  said,  "  he  isn't  going  to  let  the 
batter  touch  the  ball." 

11.  Bill  lounged  lazily  in  his  leather-cushioned  chair,  his  feet 
were  propped  up  at  a  comfortable  angle. 

12.  My  friend  was  an  extremely  gay  and  humorous  fellow,  no 
matter  how  dull  and  blue  things  were,  he  could  always  make 
the  situation  pleasant  and  delightful. 

13.  While  still  very  young,  I  learned  to  play  the  piano,  I  thought 
then  that  I  would  make  a  great  reputation  as  a  musician. 

14.  He  is  of  medium  height  and  of  slender  figure,  his  eyes  are 
light  blue. 

15.  When  we  entered  the  restaurant,  a  waiter  showed  us  a  table, 
he  was  a  young  man  with  light  hair  and  fair  complexion,  he 
wore   a  white  coat  and  apron,  on  his  head  he  had  a  soft 
white  hat. 

b.  Period-for-comma.     The  so-called  "period  fault"  or 


10     SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

"  illiterate  period  "  is  the  writing  of  only  a  part  of  a  sentence 
as  if  it  were  a  complete  sentence  —  the  use  of  a  period 
where  a  comma  is  needed. 

Wrong:  When  I  saw  him  last,  he  said  he  would  come.    Though 
his  desire  was  obviously  faint. 

Clearly,  there  is  only  one  sentence  here  and  only  one 
period  should  be  used. 

Right:  When  I  saw  him  last,  he  said  he  would  come,  though  his 
desire  was  obviously  faint. 

There  are  three  common  varieties  of  the  "period  fault": 

1.  A  phrase  consisting  of  a  noun  or  pronoun  plus  a  verbal 
noun  or  adjective  in  -ing  is  often  treated  as  a  complete 
sentence. 

Wrong:  She  cared  little  for  society.     Her  chief  interest  being 

the  care  of  her  house. 

Right:  She  cared  little  for  society,  her  chief  interest  being  the 
care  of  her  house. 

2.  An  appositive  phrase  is  sometimes  written  as  a  sepa- 
rate sentence.     This  type  of  error  occurs  most  frequently 
when  the  appositive  is  introduced  by  such  expressions  as 
namely,  as,  for  example,  that  is. 

Wrong:  He  hated  the  town.    As  a  place  of  residence  especially. 

Right:  He  hated  the  town,  as  a  place  of  residence  especially. 

Wrong:  He  was  praised  by  those  who  knew  him  best.     Namely, 

his  brothers. 

Right:  He  was  praised  by  those  who  knew  him  best,  namely, 
his  brothers. 

3.  The  second  of  two  that-cl&uses  is  often  written  as  a 
separate  sentence. 

Wrong:  He  said  that  he  would  certainly  help  us.     That  he 
has  no  objection  to  the  plan. 


EXERCISE  IN  PERIOD  FAULT  11 

Right:  He  said  that  he  would  certainly  help  us,  that  he  has  no 

objection  to  the  plan. 
Wrong:  Milton  thought  that  man  should  be  obedient  to  God. 

That  woman  should  obey  God  through  man. 
Right:  Milton  thought  that  man  should  be  obedient  to  God, 

that  woman  should  obey  God  through  man. 

EXERCISE  V 

Correct  the  "period  fault"  in  the  following  sentences: 

1.  Learning  is,  in  too   many  cases,  but  a   foil  to  common 
sense.     A  substitute  for  true  knowledge. 

2.  Some  men  cannot  reason  wrongly.    Since  they  do  not  reason 
at  all. 

3.  Greatness  is  power.     Producing  great  effects. 

4.  Carlyle  said  that  it  was  a  great  thing  for  a  nation  to  have  a 
poet  to  speak  for  it.     That  all  people  of  English  descent 
thought  and  spoke  through  Shakspere. 

5.  He  was  accustomed  to  taking  long  walks  alone.     Thereby 
increasing  his  knowledge  of  trees,  flowers,  and  birds. 

6.  Our  teacher  acted  like  a  friend  to  us.   One  who  would  sym- 
pathize with  us. 

7.  There  is  one  night  that  I  shall  always  remember.    Because 
something  memorable  happened  to  me  then. 

8.  The  citizens  have  the  right  to  overthrow  an  unjust  form  of 
government  and  set  up  a  desirable  form.  Which  will  guar- 
antee to  them  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

9.  Emerson  says  that  the  priest  becomes  a  form.    That  the 
mechanic  becomes  a  machine.  And  that  the  sailor  becomes 
a  rope  of  the  ship. 

10.  America  is  blessed  with  a  democratic  government.  A  gov- 
ernment that  is  a  model  for  the  world. 

11.  A  gentle  tapping  could  be  heard  at  my  door.      Which 
caused  me  to  pause  and  listen  intently. 

12.  More  than  once  an  involuntary  fear  seized  me.   As  I  heard 
above  my  head  the  muffled  whirr  of  a  ringdove's  wings 
hurrying  past. 


12     SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

13.  This  unknown  personage  wore  an  old  coat  much  worn  in  the 
folds.  And  a  diamond  in  the  frill  of  his  shirt,  and  gold  ear- 
rings in  his  ears. 

14.  The  quantity  of  light  reflected  from  the  bent  needles  was 
so  great  as  to  make  whole  groves  appear  as  if  covered  with 
snow.  The  black  shadows  beneath  the  trees  greatly  enhanc- 
ing the  effect  of  the  silvery  splendor. 

15.  Calhoun    and  Webster   debated   the   question   of   States' 
Rights.  Each  one  construing  the  Constitution  in  accordance 
with  his  own  convictions. 

5.  Misuse  of  conjunctions.  The  "  comma  fault"  or  the 
"period  fault"  may  sometimes  be  attributed,  not  to  an 
ignorance  of  what  a  sentence  is,  but  rather  to  a  hazy  con- 
ception of  conjunctions.  For  example,  in  the  illustrative 
sentence  under  "  Period-for-comma  "  (p.  10), 

Though  his  desire  was  obviously  faint, 

the  subordinating  conjunction  though  is  incorrectly  used  as 
a  coordinating  conjunction: 

But  his  desire  was  obviously  faint. 

The  various  classes  of  conjunctions  should  be  carefully 
distinguished  from  each  other  and  from  other  parts  of 
speech.  A  conjunction  is  a  word  used  to  connect  words, 
phrases,  or  clauses.  A  conjunction  used  to  connect  ex- 
pressions of  equal  rank  is  a  coordinating  conjunction.  For 
example: 

He  was  tall  and  slim. 

I  looked  for  him  all  day,  but  he  was  not  to  be  found. 

To  be  or  not  to  be  —  that  is  the  question. 

The  most  common  coordinating  conjunctions  are  and, 
or,  nor  ( —  and  not),  but,  for,  and  yet. 

A  conjunction  that  connects  a  dependent  clause  with 
the  clause  on  which  it  depends  is  a  subordinating  conjunc- 


MISUSE  OF  CONJUNCTIONS  13 

tion.  Note  that  each  of  the  subordinating  conjunctions 
in  the  following  sentences  introduces  an  expression  that  is 
unequal  in  rank  to  the  expression  with  which  it  is  joined. 

When  I  asked  for  him,  I  was  informed  that  he  had  left  the  city. 
Although  the  weather  was  extremely  disagreeable,  we  decided 
to  start  on  our  journey. 

Some  of  the  most  common  subordinating  conjunctions 
are  although,  as,  because,  since,  if,  than,  that,  and  unless. 

Certain  words  usually  employed  as  adverbs  are  some- 
times used  to  connect  clauses.  Such  words  are  conven- 
iently called  conjunctive  adverbs.  Some  of  the  most  com- 
mon conjunctive  adverbs  are  so,  therefore,  hence,  moreover, 
also,  thus,  then,  still,  and  accordingly.  Although  these  words 
give  the  beginner  much  difficulty,  the  use  of  them  may  be 
simplified  by  remembering  (i)  that  they  are  to  be  carefully 
distinguished  from  simple  conjunctions,  and  (2)  that  they 
are  commonly  used  as  pure  adverbs.  For  example: 

He  was  so  weary  with  the  day's  work  that  he  left  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  (Here  so  is  a  pure  adverb.) 

He  was  weary  with  the  day's  work;  so  he  left  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  (Here  so  is  a  conjunctive  adverb.) 

EXERCISE  VI 

Compose  five  sentences  in  which  some  of  these  words  are 
used  as  pure  adverbs:  still,  so,  then,  further,  likewise,  conse- 
quently, therefore,  hence,  however.  Compose  five  in  which 
the  same  words  are  used  as  conjunctive  adverbs.  Now 
reconstruct  the  second  group  of  sentences  in  such  a  way  as 
to  substitute  coordinating  or  subordinating  conjunctions 
for  the  conjunctive  adverbs. 

Many  of  the  words  that  we  commonly  call  conjunctions 


14  SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

are  not  always  used  as  conjunctions.  They  are  often  em- 
ployed as  nouns,  prepositions,  adverbs,  or  other  parts  of 
speech.  For,  since,  and  notwithstanding,  for  example,  may 
be  used  as  prepositions  or  as  conjunctions: 

He  went  home  for  his  father.     (Preposition.} 

He  went  home,  for  his  father  had  sent  for  him.     (Conjunction.} 

By  analogy  to  these  words,  which  are  used  sometimes 
as  one  part  of  speech  and  sometimes  as  another,  the  careless 
writer  extends  the  use  of  other  words  into  uses  which  have 
not  been  sanctioned.  For  instance,  the  prepositions  like 
and  without  are  sometimes  incorrectly  employed  as  sub- 
stitutes for  the  corresponding  conjunctions  as  (or  as  if)  and 
unless. 

Wrong:  He  pitches  the  ball  like  a  professional  does. 
Right:  He  pitches  the  ball  as  a  professional  does. 

EXERCISE  VII 

Copy  the  following  sentences,  inserting  like,  as,  or  as  ij 
in  the  proper  place. 

1.  He  does  it  just his  brother  does. 

2.  It  looks it  might  rain. 

3 all  his  brothers,  he  is  a  good  athlete. 

4.  I  wish  I  could  sing Scotti. 

5.  She  looks   her  mother,  but  talks   her 

father  does. 

6.  I  don't  think you  do  about  that. 

7.  Buy  Liberty  Bonds  over  here they  fight  over  there. 

Conjunctions  are  often  used  to  connect  sentence  ele- 
ments of  equal  rank  or  value.  When  so  used,  these  con- 
junctions are  called  correlative  conjunctions.  The  most 
common  correlatives  are  both  —  and;  not  only  —  but  also; 


PUNCTUATION  15 

either  —  or;  neither  —  nor;  although  —  yet  (still).  Care 
should  be  taken  to  use  these  conjunctions  only  in  connec- 
tion with  expressions  that  are  of  equal  rank  or  value. 

Relative  pronouns  (who,  which,  that,  etc.)  and  relative 
adverbs  (when,  where,  etc.)  may  be  classed  as  conjunctions, 
since  they  connect  dependent  clauses  with  main  clauses. 

EXERCISE  VIII 

Correct  the  misuse  of  conjunctions  in  the  following 
sentences: 

1.  He  not  only  went  to  Washington,  but  also  to  New  York. 

2.  He  both  talked  longer  and  more  rapidly  than  I  had  expected. 

3.  They  would  neither  dance  nor  would  they  play  any  of  the 
card  games. 

4.  The  nation  not  only  had  a  stronger  power  of  resistance,  but 
also  it  became  stronger  in  religion. 

6.  Punctuation.  Punctuation  should  be  regarded  as  a 
means  of  making  our  thoughts  clear,  not  as  a  set  of  arbi- 
trary rules  to  be  followed  blindly.  The  best  remedy  for 
faults  of  punctuation  is  a  clear  understanding  of  the  rela- 
tion of  punctuation  to  the  written  expression  of  our 
thoughts.  In  speaking,  we  indicate  the  relation  of  our 
thoughts  by  pauses,  by  changes  in  tone,  or  by  variety  in 
the  force  of  utterance.  We  find  no  trouble  in  deciding 
whether  a  spoken  sentence  is  a  statement  of  fact,  a  ques- 
tion, or  an  exclamation.  "  He  is  gone  "  may  be  spoken  as 
a  statement  of  fact,  a  question,  or  an  exclamation  with  ab- 
solutely no  risk  of  misunderstanding  on  the  part  of  the 
hearer.  The  marks  of  punctuation  are  symbols  that  have 
become  fixed  by  common  consent  and  general  use  as  the 
means  of  indicating  these  differences  in  meaning.  Their 
prime  reason  for  being  is  to  make  the  meaning  of  the  sen- 
tence clear  to  the  reader.  Obviously,  if  writer  and  reader 


16    SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

did  not  use  the  same  set  of  symbols,  if  the  same  signs  did 
not  convey  the  same  message  to  both,  these  symbols  would 
be  meaningless.  The  signs  would  be  as  unintelligible  to  the 
reader  as  Gregg  shorthand  would  be  to  a  man  who  knows 
only  the  Pitman  system.  It  is  imperative,  then,  that  the 
beginner  should  master  the  use  of  these  symbols  if  he 
would  make  his  meaning  clear.  A  study  of  the  following 
sentences  will  reveal  the  importance  of  correct  punctuation : 

1.  When  I  came  to  college  for  the  first  time,  I  knew  what  it  was 
to  be  homesick. 

When  I  came  to  college,  for  the  first  time  I  knew  what  it  was 
to  be  homesick. 

2.  Leave  now  if  you  wish. 
Leave  now  —  if  you  wish. 
Leave  now?    If  you  wish. 

3 .  Then,  too,  much  power  was  given  to  the  President. 
Then,  too  much  power  was  given  to  the  President. 
Then  too  much  power  was  given  to  the  President. 

4.  " Sweet  mistress,  whereas     "Sweet    mistress,    whereas.  I 

I  love  you  nothing  at  all,  love  you,  nothing  at  all 

Regarding  your  substance  Regarding  your  riches  and  sub- 

and  riches  chief  of  all,  stance;  chief  of  all 

For  your  personage,  beau-  For   your   personage,    beauty, 

ty,  demeanor  and  wit,  demeanor,  and  wit 

I   commend  me  unto  you  I     commend    me    unto    you. 

never  a  whit;  Never  a  whit 

Sorry  to    hear    report  of  Sorry  to  hear  report  of  your 

your  good  welfare."  good  welfare." 

Comma.  Of  the  various  symbols  used  to  show  the 
relation  of  thoughts,  the  comma  is  by  far  the  most 
troublesome.  Three  important  uses,  however,  cover 
nearly  all  of  the  rules  for  the  use  of  the  comma: 

Use  I.   To  separate  coordinate  sentence  elements. 


THE  COMMA  17 

a.  To  separate  independent  clauses  which  are  connected 
by  a  simple  coordinating  conjunction: 

The  rains  descended,  and  the  floods  came. 

If  the  clauses  are  short  and  the  coordination  is  close, 
no  comma  is  needed: 

He  came  and  he  went  at  his  leisure. 

b.  To  separate  coordinate  elements  other  than  independent 
clauses: 

That  America  contributed  greatly  to  the  victory  in  the  field, 
and  that  her  tremendous  preparations  contributed  even  more  is 
regarded  by  Marshal  Foch  as  the  decisive  factor  in  the  victory 
of  the  Allies.  (A  long  compound  subject  is  separated  by  commas; 
a  short  compound  subject  rarely  requires  a  comma.) 

Jackson  had  gathered  his  men  behind  a  high  hill  near  the  village, 
and  had  kept  them  in  hiding  there  until  the  moment  for  the 
attack  came.  (Long  compound  predicate.) 

The  cool,  white  fog  drifted  in  from  the  sea,  obliterated  the 
lighthouse  and  the  islands,  and  lost  itself  in  the  trees,  spires,  and 
towers  of  the  city.  (A  series  of  coordinate  adjectives,  nouns,  verbs, 
adverbs,  dependent  clauses,  etc.,  when  not  joined  by  conjunctions, 
are  separated  by  commas.) 

Use  2.  To  prevent  misreading.  The  comma  is  used  to 
prevent  the  reader  from  connecting  words  that  do  not 
properly  belong  together.  It  is  a  common  experience  to 
begin  reading  a  sentence  and  to  find,  when  we  are  in  the 
middle  of  it,  that  we  have  started  on  the  wrong  track  and 
that  we  shall  have  to  begin  all  over  again.  This  experience 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  eye  does  not  see  the  single  words 
of  the  sentence,  but  takes  them  up  in  groups.  Hence, 
words  which  are  sometimes  one  part  of  speech  and  some- 
times another,  are  often  misread.  Note  the  effect  of  the 
absence  of  punctuation  in  the  following  sentences: 


18     SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

Wrong:  Ever  since  he  has  been  afraid  of  water  and  has  not 

since  taken  a  boat  trip. 
Wrong:  As  I  munched  and  munched  a  half-naked  boy  ran  by 

and  disturbed  my  noon  meal. 
Wrong:  To  Paul  Williams  announced  the  good  news  that  their 

candidate  had  won  by  a  majority  of  20000  votes. 
Right:  Ever  since,  he  has  been  afraid  of  water  and  has  not 

since  taken  a  boat  trip. 
Right:  As  I  munched  and  munched,  a  half-naked  boy  ran  by 

and  disturbed  my  noon  meal. 

Right:  To  Paul,  Williams  announced  the  good  news  that  their 
candidate  had  won  by  a  majority  of  20,000  votes. 

The  omission  of  the  comma  in  the  first  sentence  would 
make  it  resemble  a  dependent  clause  introduced  by  the 
conjunction  since.  In  the  second  sentence,  the  comma  pre- 
vents the  reader  from  regarding  the  subject  of  the  main 
clause  as  the  object  of  the  verb  in  the  preceding  dependent 
clause.  Often,  it  is  true,  an  introductory  dependent  clause 
similar  to  our  "  As  I  munched  and  munched  "  clause  is  in  no 
serious  danger  of  being  misread,  and  yet  would  be  more 
immediately  clear  if  followed  by  a  comma.  For  example: 

As  I  stood  there  and  watched  the  door  of  the  house,  a  man  who 
looked  like  my  friend  came  out. 

In  the  third  sentence,  the  first  comma  prevents  the  reader 
from  connecting  proper  names  that  do  not  belong  to- 
gether. The  second  comma  in  this  sentence  aids  the  reader 
in  reading  a  series  of  figures. 

The  same  principle  explains  the  use  of  the  comma  before 
the  conjunction  for  to  distinguish  it  from  the  preposition 
for: 

As  soon  as  he  received  the  letter,  he  went  home,  for  his  brother 
was  dangerously  ill. 

If  the  comma  were  omitted,  in  rapid  reading  the  eye  would 
grasp  as  one  unit  "  He  went  home  for  his  brother." 


A 

THE  COMMA  19 

Use  3.  jfo  set  of  parenthetical  matter.  The  comma  is 
used  to  mark  off  parenthetical  expressions.  Any  break  in 
the  grammatical  construction  of  the  sentence  or  any  inter- 
ruption for  the  addition  of  an  unessential  qualifying  word, 
phrase,  or  clause  is  marked  by  the  comma.  Study  the  use 
of  the  comma  in  the  following  sentences: 

a.  He  was  not  pleased,  I  suppose,  with  my  proposal.      (Pa- 
renthetical expression,} 

b.  Accordingly,    I    returned    home    at    once.       (Introductory 
expression.) 

c.  Everything  being  ready,  we  started  at  one  o'clock.     (Nomi- 
native absolute.} 

d.  Blake,  not  seeing  the  obstacle,   ran   into  it.     (Participial 
phrase.} 

f.  The  water,  which  was  clear  and  pure,  lapped  the  sides  of  the 
boat.     (Non-restrictive  expression.} 

/.  My  best  friend,  Captain  Smith,  has  informed  me  of  his 
resignation.     (Appositive.} 

g.  You  know,  John,  how  I  feel  about  the  matter.     (Focative.) 
h.  Alas,  I  no  longer  have  the  power  to  refuse.     (Interjection.) 
i.  An  excellent  address  was  delivered  by  James  C.  Cole,  D.D. 

(Titles  of  persons  used  with  the  proper  name.} 
j.  Portland,  Ore.,  gets  its  name  from  Portland,  Me.    (To  set 

o/  geographical  expressions.) 
k.  He  was  born  on  June  21,  1888.     (With  dates.} 

EXERCISE  IX 

Supply  commas  where  they  are  needed  in  the  following 
sentences  and  explain  the  use  of  each  comma  you  employ 
(whether  Use  la,  Use  ib,  Use  2,  Use  30,  Use  3^,  etc.): 

1.  There  is  a  kind  of  fascination  in  playing  the  game,  [Use  la] 
and  a  man,  [Use  30]  no  doubt,  [Use  30]  becomes  carried  away 
by  his  enthusiasm. 

2.  I  am  not  altogether  without  musical  feeling  but  I  could  never 
appreciate  the  operas  of  Wagner. 


20    SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

3.  He  was  a  faithful  though  not  on  the  whole  a  very  capable 
workman. 

4.  As  a  result  the  plan  failed  at  the  first  trial. 

5.  The  most  interesting  character  is  Macbeth  the  tyrannical 
king. 

6.  You  see  now  James  that  I  was  right. 

7.  Considering  the  structure  of  the  play  we  see  that  it  is  divided 
into  five  acts  each  of  which  has  three  or  more  scenes. 

8.  I  stepped  forth  asking  my  friend  not  to  wait  for  my  return. 

9.  Alas  I  have  no  home. 

10.  Augusta  Maine  is  a  smaller  city  than  Augusta  Georgia. 

11.  I  shall  not  wait  longer  for  the  train  has  not  been  reported. 

12.  The  work  was  begun  on  July  18  1912. 

13.  We  came  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain  rested  our  horses  for 
an  hour  and  then  began  the  toilsome  climb  to  the  summit. 

1 4.  I  voted  for  John  Jones  for  William. 

15.  When  he  began  to  walk  his  horse  slowly  followed  him. 

16.  The  garrison  in  a  panic  gave  up  the  fort  and  the  enemy 
entered  it  without  a  struggle. 

17.  These  ships  fitted  out  with  the  detecting  device  were  not 
in  much  danger. 

1 8.  The  water  which  lapped  the  sides  of  the  boat  was  as  clear 
as  glass. 

19.  Hamlet  who  was  the  son  of  the  former  king  regarded  Horatio 
his  best  friend  with  much  admiration. 

20.  Everything  being  prepared  we  began  to  pull  the  boat  down 
to  the  shore. 

2 1.  The  men  carried  axes  shovels  and  picks. 

22.  The  flying  squirrel  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  the 
little  animals  we  found  in  the  woods  a  beautiful  brown  crea- 
ture with  fine  eyes  and  smooth  soft  fur  like  that  of  a  mole 
or  field  mouse.    He  is  about  half  as  long  as  the  gray  squirrel 
but  his  wide-spread  tail  and  the  folds  of  skin  along  his  sides 
that  form  the  wings  make  him  look  broad  and  flat  something 
like  a  cat.     In  the  evenings  our  cat  often  brought  them  to 
her  kittens  at  the  shanty  and  later  we  saw  them  fly  during 
the  day  from  the  trees  we  were  chopping.     They  jumped 


THE  SEMICOLON  21 

and  glided  off  smoothly  and  apparently  without  effort  like 
birds  as  soon  as  they  heard  and  felt  the  breaking  shock  of 
the  strained  fibers  at  the  stump  when  the  trees  they  were  in 
began  to  totter  and  groan. 

Semicolon.  The  semicolon  indicates  a  greater  break  in 
construction  than  does  the  comma.  It  may  therefore  be 
substituted  sometimes  for  the  comma  and  sometimes  for 
the  period,  but  never  indiscriminately.  Remember  that 
the  semicolon  has  well-defined  uses  of  its  own  and  should 
not  be  regarded  as  a  loose  substitute  for  the  comma  or 
period.  It  is  preferred  to  the  comma  in  the  three  follow- 
ing uses: 

Use  I.  The  semicolon  is  used  before  the  conjunctive 
adverbs  so,  thus,  then,  therefore,  etc.,  and  before  the  ex- 
planatory expressions  that  is,  i.e.,  viz.,  namely,  e.g.,  for 
example,  except  when  they  introduce  appositives;  for  ex- 
ample: 

The  thunder  clouds  were  rapidly  gathering;  so  we  made  haste 
to  get  our  boat  under  cover. 

Before  I  can  answer  your  questions,  I  shall  have  to  know 
several  facts;  for  example,  I  shall  have  to  know  whether  your 
friend  has  had  any  experience  in  this  kind  of  work. 

Use  2.  The  semicolon  is  used  between  the  independent 
clauses  of  a  sentence  not  joined  by  one  of  the  simple  con- 
junctions: 

We  must  not  rely  on  appearances;  we  must  get  at  the  facts  in 
the  case. 

Use  3.  Even  when  the  independent  clauses  of  a  com- 
pound sentence  are  connected  by  a  simple  conjunction,  the 
semicolon  should  be  used  if  either,  or  both,  of  the  clauses  is 
long,  or  if  either  of  them  contains  interior  punctuation: 


22     SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

Dorothea  immediately  took  up  the  necklace  and  fastened  it 
around  her  sister's  neck,  where  it  fitted  almost  as  closely  as  a 
bracelet;  but  the  circle  suited  the  Henrietta-Maria  style  of 
Celia's  head  and  neck,  and  she  could  see  that  it  did,  in  the  pier- 
glass  opposite. 

He  was  brave,  but  not  reckless,  in  the  presence  of  danger;  self- 
controlled,  but  not  adamant,  in  the  presence  of  human  suffering; 
and  tender,  but  not  maudlin,  in  the  presence  of  death. 

EXERCISE  X 

Punctuate  the  following  sentences: 

1.  I  didn't  like  school  very  much;  [Use  I]  so  I  was  late  about 
three  times  a  week. 

2.  The  people  have  made  progress  in  many  ways  for  example 
they  have  better  schools  and  churches. 

3.  You  are  standing  on  a  sort  of  shelf  down  below  you  the  river 
flows  silently  along. 

4.  The  corner  cupboard  was  already  old  in  service  it  had  held 
the  medicine  of  generations. 

5.  First  come  the  men  with  the  axes  they  go  ahead   and  cut 
down  the  small  trees. 

6.  It  was  ten  o'clock  when  they  mounted  the  steps  it  was  about 
midnight  when  I  saw  them  coming  back. 

7.  I  could  think  of  no  good  reason  for  going  therefore  I  re- 
mained at  home. 

8.  We  should  not  look  on  with  idle  hands  we  should  do  our  part. 

9.  They  had  seen  the  French  colors  flying  on  Fort  St.  George 
they  had  seen  the  chiefs  of  the  English  factory  led  in  triumph 
through  the  streets. 

10.  When  manners  have  changed  when  the  clergy  the  moral 
leaders  of  the  country  have  ceased  to  lead  when  the  whole 
order  of  society  has  undergone  a  complete  revolution  al- 
though a  bloodless  and  peaceful  revolution  we  must  see  that 
the  time  is  ripe  for  reform. 

Colon.     The  colon  has  only  one  important  use:  to  point 


THE  COMMA  23 

forward  to  something  which  the  reader  naturally  expects 
to  follow.     For  example: 

There  were  three  causes  for  his  dismissal:  laziness,  lack  of 
capacity,  and  dishonesty. 

After  a  pause,  the  speaker  began  as  follows:  "  I  have  often  looked 
forward  to  the  opportunity  of  addressing  such  an  audience  as 
this." 

EXERCISE  XI 

Punctuate  the  following  sentences: 

1 .  As  a  student  of  philosophy  he  had  read  widely  in  the  philos- 
ophies of  many  men  Plato  Aristotle  Hume  Kant  Hegel  and 
Nietzsche. 

2.  Lincoln  had  many  qualities  which  made  him  easily  accessible 
to  all  men  good-nature  humor  affability  kindness  and  fair- 
mindedness. 

3 .  The  important  thing  is  this  that  under  such  a  government  as 
ours  the  broad  path  of  opportunity  is  open  equally  to  all  men. 

4.  Friday  has  been  a  remarkable  day  in  his  life  he  was  born  on 
Friday  he  entered  college  on  Friday  he  married  on  Friday 
and  his  election  to  the  United  States  Senate  took  place  on 
Friday. 

5.  There  were  two  steps  in  the  process  first  he  cut  thin  strips  of 
bark  then  he  placed  them  in  an  oven  for  two  days. 

EXERCISE  Xn 

A  General  Exercise  in  Punctuation 

Punctuate  the  following  sentences,  omitting  all  unneces- 
sary punctuation: 

1.  The  first  thing  you  see  is  a  log  cabin  if  you  look  closely 
you  will  see  that  it  has  been  repaired  many  times. 

2.  I  lived  a  happy  life  until  one  memorable  day.     When  Mr. 
Smith  my  father's  partner  came  into  the  house  to  speak  to 
me. 


24    SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

3.  Men  should  not  choose  their  professions  before  entering 
college  such  a  choice  would  be  harmful  to  them. 

4.  He  goes  out  early  to  kill  birds.     After  he  has  killed  all  they 
will  need  for  dinner.    He  stops  hunting  and  goes  home  in  the 
evening  when  his  work  has  been  finished  he  will  take  a  good 
book  for  an  hour's  reading. 

5.  They  have  opened  up  one  big  new  plant.     A  flour  mill 
which  turns  out  the  best  flour  in  the  State. 

6.  They  rushed  wildly  after  the  new  lands  some  of  them  did 
it  for  love  of  freedom  others  for  love  of  property. 

7.  If  business  is  carried  on  in  this  way  it  is  a  great  benefit 
otherwise  it  is  a  great  loss  to  the  nation. 

8.  Whitman    believed  in   an  individualistic   democracy.      A 
democracy   that  gives   every  man  the  opportunity  to  ex- 
press himself. 

9.  When  they  were  ordered  to  enter  the  house  they  imagined 
that  the  man  was  joking  and  being  in  a  jovial  humor  they 
laughed  at  the  absurdity  of  the  idea. 

10.  To  conclude  the  whole  business  is  a  farce  as  I  said  before  we 
began  it. 

11.  Thus  idling  and  wandering  stretching  themselves  now  and 
then  among  the  grass  and  now  getting  up  to  look  at  some 
specially  fertile  place  which  another  called  them  to  see  and 
which  they  thought  might  be  turned  to  trading  purposes 
they  came  upon  a  mound  covered  with  trees  which  looked 
into  a  flat  wide  lawn  of  rank  grass  with  a  house  at  the  end 
of  it. 

12.  As  he  was  plowing  the  field  his  plow  struck  something 
hard  he  picked  it  up  and  strange  to  say  it  was  an  old  iron 
chest. 

13.  Dress  as  neatly  as  you  can  but  not  too  expensively  in  other 
words  let  your  dress  be  good  but  not  extravagant. 

14.  And  now  the  stupor  of  despair  fell  upon  him  he  saw  the 
approach  of  the  horse  and  rider  but  as  in  a  dream. 

15.  They  then  gazed  at  the  result  of  their  work  but  with  mingled 
awe  and  pleasure. 


EXERCISE  IN  PUNCTUATION  25 

16.  In  eight  months  he  had  done  the  work  of  two  years  and  then 
after  a  short  rest  he  had  completed  the  rest  of  the  course. 

17.  For  George  Spencer  professed  a  great  admiration. 

1 8.  At  length  allowing  his  attention  to  wander  from  the  road 
he  soon  fell  into  a  reverie  from  which  he  was  awakened  by 
the  sound  of  a  cart  rumbling  over  the  bridge. 

19.  I  had  several  reasons  for  refusing  to  go  first  I  did  not  have 
the  time  secondly  I  did  not  need  the  trip  and  thirdly  I  pre- 
ferred to  spend  my  vacation  nearer  home. 

20.  However  as  Annixter  stepped  from  the  porch  of  the  ranch 
house  he  was  surprised  to  notice  a  gray  haze  over  all  the 
sky  the  sunlight  was  gone  there  was  a  sense  of  coolness  in 
the  air  the  weather-vane  on  the  barn  a  fine  golden  trotting 
horse  with  flamboyant  mane  and  tail  was  veering  in  a  south- 
west wind. 

21.  The  main  of  life  is  indeed  composed  of  small  incidents  and 
petty  occurrences  of  wishes  for  objects  not  remote  and  grief 
for  disappointments  of  no  fatal  consequence  of  insect  vexa- 
tions which  sting  us  and  fly  away  impertinences  which  buzz 
awhile  about  us  and  are  heard  no  more  of  meteorous  pleas- 
ures which  dance  before  us  and  are  dissipated  of  compli- 
ments which  glide  off  the  soul  like  other  music  and  are  for- 
gotten by  him  that  gave  and  him  that  received  them. 

Such  is  the  general  heap  out  of  which  every  man  is  to  cull 
his  condition  for  as  the  chemists  tell  us  all  bodies  are  re- 
solvable into  the  same  elements  and  the  boundless  variety 
of  things  arises  from  the  different  proportions  of  very  few 
ingredients  so  a  few  pains  and  a  few  pleasures  are  all  the 
materials  of  human  life  and  of  these  the  proportions  are 
partly  allotted  by  Providence  and  partly  left  to  the  arrange- 
ment of  reason  and  of  choice. 

22.  Miss  Kinzer  heres  a  lady  wants  to  learn  shrilled  the  high 
nasal  voice  Miss  Kinzer  wheres  Miss  Kinzer  oh  here  you  are 
as  a  young  woman  emerged  from  behind  a  pile  of  pasteboard 
boxes  Ive  a  learner  for  you  Miss  Kinzer  shes  a  green  girl  but 
she  looks  likely  and  I  want  you  to  give  her  a  good  chance 


26     SENTENCES  AND  PUNCTUATION 

better  put  her  on  table  work  to  begin  with  and  with  that 
injunction  the  little  old  maid  hopped  away  ever  worked  in  a 
factory  before  she  began  no  where  did  you  work  I  never 
worked  any  place  before  oh  there  was  a  world  of  meaning  as 
I  afterward  discovered  in  Miss  Kinzers  long  drawn  out  oh 
youre  not  used  to  work  then  she  remarked  insinuatingly 
well  not  exactly  that  I  replied  nettled  by  her  manner  and 
above  all  by  her  way  of  putting  things  I  have  worked  before 
but  never  at  factory  work  then  why  didnt  you  say  so  where 
do  you  live  over  in  east  fourteenth  street  I  replied  mechani- 
cally forgetting  for  the  moment  the  catastrophe  that  had 
rendered  me  more  homeless  than  ever  home  no  I  room  my 
folks  are  all  dead  what  impression  this  bit  of  information 
made  I  was  unable  to  determine  as  I  followed  her  slender 
slightly  bowed  figure  across  the  busy  roaring  workroom. 

EXERCISE  XIII 

Copy  a  paragraph  from  some  good  book  or  magazine, 
omitting  all  sentence  divisions  and  marks  of  punctuation. 
Put  your  copy  aside  for  several  days  and  then  punctuate  it. 
Compare  your  copy  with  the  original  paragraph  and  ex- 
plain any  differences  in  sentence  division  and  punctuation. 


CHAPTER  II 
SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

I.  Subordination.  A  sentence,  we  have  seen,  is  a  group 
of  words  expressing  a  complete  thought.  A  complete 
thought  may  contain  any  number  of  constituent  thoughts. 

When  a  sentence  contains  only  one  thought,  it  is  a  simple 
sentence;  for  example: 

The  man  stands  in  the  doorway. 

We  usually  think,  so  to  speak,  in  simple  sentences,  —  our 
thoughts  coming,  not  in  bundles,  but  successively  and 
singly.  The  following  might  represent  a  train  of  thought: 

The  man  stands  in  the  doorway.  He  is  tall.  Perhaps  the 
doorway  is  low.  His  figure  is  shadowy.  His  clothes  are  dark. 
The  house  is  dark  within.  One  cannot  distinguish  the  man's 
features. , 

Obviously,  that  would  be  a  hopelessly  monotonous  and 
ineffective  way  of  expressing  oneself  on  paper,  no  matter 
how  accurately  it  represents  our  undirected  thinking.  The 
first  step  that  one  naturally  takes  in  endeavoring  to  avoid 
this  jerky,  incoherent  manner  of  writing  is  the  binding  to- 
gether of  closely  related  ideas,  tying  them  in  bundles.  So 
one  writes: 

The  man  is  tall,  or  else  the  doorway  is  low.  His  clothes  are 
dark,  and  the  house  is  dark  within.  Etc. 

In  each  of  these  two  sentences,  we  have  united  two  ideas 
by  using  a  coordinating  conjunction  that  expresses  the  rela- 
tion of  the  constituent  thoughts  to  each  other,  —  or  ex- 


28  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

pressing  alternation,  and  addition.  The  result  in  each  case 
is  a  compound  sentence:  it  presents  a  complete  thought 
composed  of  two  independent  constituent  thoughts. 

Frequently,  —  in  telling  a  story,  for  instance,  —  we  ex- 
press our  thoughts  in  the  form  of  compound  sentences  con- 
taining a  large  number  of  constituent  thoughts.  Thus: 

The  street  was  bare,  and  not  a  soul  was  visible,  and  the  horse 
and  buggy  went  crashing  on,  and  then  we  saw  a  child  just  round 
the  curve.  It  seemed  doomed,  and  we  were  frantic  with  horror, 
but  suddenly  we  saw  a  man  in  a  dark  doorway,  but  we  didn't 
recognize  him,  and  he  blocked  the  way,  and  he  turned  out  to  be 
our  friend  Martin. 

Here  are  two  compound  sentences,  one  containing  four,  the 
other  six,  constituent  thoughts.  Each  is  a  correct  sen- 
tence, because  the  result  in  each  case  is  one  complete 
thought  —  first,  the  runaway  horse  was  about  to  crush  to 
death  a  child,  and  second,  the  child  was  unexpectedly 
saved  by  our  friend  Martin.  But  although  these  com- 
pound sentences  are  correct,  they  are  only  a  little  less 
monotonous  and  ineffective  than  that  insufferable  string 
of  brief  simple  sentences  with  which  we  began. 

Why  is  this  so?  We  have  bound  our  thoughts  in  bun- 
dles, so  that  they  might  be  regarded  as  orderly  groups,  but 
the  result  is  still  crude.  What  more  can  be  done? 

The  difficulty  is  that  our  bundles  are  like  piles  of  logs  of 
the  same  girth,  neatly  placed  side  by  side  and  on  top  of 
each  other,  and  capable  of  the  addition  of  as  many  more 
of  the  same  size  as  one  cares  to  put  on  the  pile.  Adding  a 
few  logs  to  our  second  pile,  we  get  this  result: 

It  stood  there  looking  at  a  bright  pebble,  and  it  didn't  move  at  ail, 
and  it  seemed  doomed,  and  we  were  filled  with  horror,  and  some  of  us 
turned  pale  as  death,  but  suddenly  we  saw  a  man  in  a  dark  doorway, 
and  he  had  doubtless  been  there  right  along,  but  we  hadn't  noticed 


SUBORDINATION  29 

him  before,  and  he  came  out  like  a  flash,  and  he  blocked  the  way,  and 
it  was  Martin.     (The  principal  clauses  have  been  italicized.) 

Now,  we  do  not  want  piles  of  dead  logs,  but  living  trees. 
Our  sentences  should  not  be  built  mechanically;  they 
should  grow,  as  organisms  grow.  The  tree  might  well  be 
taken  as  the  symbol  of  a  skillfully  constructed  sentence. 

FIG.  6 


FIG.  $ 


FIG.  i 


FIG.  z 


FIG.  3         FIG.  4 


\ 


FIGURE  I.  THE  SIMPLE  SENTENCE,  RUDIMENTARY  FORM 

FIGURE  2.  THE  COMPOUND  SENTENCE,  RUDIMENTARY  FORM 

FIGURE  3.  THE  COMPLEX  SENTENCE,  RUDIMENTARY  FORM 

FIGURE  4.  THE  SIMPLE  SENTENCE  HIGHLY  DEVELOPED 

FIGURE  5.  THE  COMPOUND  SENTENCE  HIGHLY  DEVELOPED 

FIGURE  6.  THE  COMPLEX  SENTENCE  HIGHLY  DEVELOPED 

A  sentence  may  contain,  like  the  sentence  above,  many 
constituent  thoughts,  but  of  these  thoughts  perhaps  one 
will  stand  out  as  the  main  thought  (the  trunk),  which  di- 
vides into  several  subordinate  thoughts  (large  branches), 
which  again  divide  into  subordinate  thoughts  (small 
branches),  etc.  Our  sentence,  if  rewritten  on  this  princi- 
ple, might  read  as  follows: 

Standing  there  looking  at  a  pebble,  quite  motionless,  and  ap- 
parently doomed,  the  child  filled  us  with  such  horror  that  some  of 
us  turned  pale  as  death;  but  suddenly  we  saw  a  man  in  a  dark 
doorway,  whom  we  hadn't  noticed  before  (though  he  had  doubt- 
less been  there  right  along)  and  who,  coming  out  like  a  flash, 


30  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

blocked  the  way  —  it  was  Martin  !  (The  principal  clauses  have 
been  italicized.) 

Here  instead  of  eleven  independent  thoughts,  we  have 
three: 

(1)  The  child  filled  us  with  horror. 

(2)  Suddenly  we  saw  a  man  in  a  dark  doorway. 

(3)  It  was  Martin. 

All  of  the  other  thoughts  are  subordinate: 
to  (i):  (a)  Standing  there  looking  at  a 
pebble. 

(b)  Quite  motionless. 

(c)  Apparently  doomed. 

(d)  Such  that  some  of  us  turned 

pale  as  death. 
to  (2):  (a)  Whom  we  hadn't  noticed 

before.  FIGURE    7.      REPRE- 

(b)  Though   he   had    doubtless  SENTS  THE  STRUC- 

been  there  right  along.  TURE  OF  THE  SEN- 

(c)  Coming  out  like  a  flash.  TENCE  ABOVE 

(d)  Who  blocked  the  way. 
to  (3):  None. 

In  general,  the  skillful  writer  is  he  who  composes  his 
sentences  so  that  they  abound  in  subordination,  —  in  de- 
pendent constituent  thoughts,  —  who  in  each  group  of 
thoughts  infallibly  picks  out  the  most  important  for  ex- 
pression in  the  main  clause  or  clauses  and  puts  the  subor- 
dinate thoughts  in  subordinate  clauses  and  phrases. 

How  shall  we  find  the  important  thoughts?  This  ques- 
tion confronts  even  the  most  experienced  writer.  We 
have,  let  us  say,  a  thought  to  express  that  is  composed  of  a 
number  of  constituent  thoughts;  we  are  aware  of  the  fact 
that  some  are  more  important  than  others  —  that  is  almost 
bound  to  be  the  case;  but  how  shall  we  find  the  chief  among 


SUBORDINATION  31 

them,  the  trunk?  There  are  but  two  methods:  first,  we 
may  experiment,  by  writing  our  thoughts  in  various  ways, 
till  we  succeed  in  putting  emphasis  on  the  chief  among 
them  (when  the  sentence  perfectly  expresses  our  thought 
we  may  be  quite  certain  that  the  emphasis  is  properly  dis- 
tributed); or,  second,  we  may  reflect,  i.e.,  experiment  men- 
tally, reviewing  the  constituent  parts  of  the  whole  thought 
until  we  see  them  so  clearly  that  the  subordinate  ideas  fall 
into  the  background  and  the  most  important  idea  or  ideas 
stand  forth  luminously. 

How  shall  we  express  the  subordinate  thoughts?  To 
express  the  most  important  thoughts  is  fairly  easy  —  we 
have  but  to  keep  them  in  the  foreground  of  the  mind  as  we 
write  the  sentence,  and  they  will  find  expression  without 
much  concern  on  our  part.  To  express  the  subordinate 
thoughts,  however,  is  not  so  easy.  They  are  not  so  vivid 
in  our  minds,  —  they  are  remote  and  blurred,  like  the  back- 
ground of  a  landscape,  —  and  they  demand  skill  in  phras- 
ing on  account  of  the  large  number  of  relationships  that 
may  exist  between  a  subordinate  clause  and  a  principal 
clause,  —  time,  condition,  cause,  purpose,  result,  conces- 
sion, relativity,  comparison,  means,  reference,  consecu- 
tiveness,  correlation,  adversity,  —  relations  that  are  to  be 
expressed  by  the  appropriate  connective  or  by  the  use  of  a 
special  construction.  If,  for  example,  the  relation  be 
condition,  we  might  combine  these  two  thoughts  — 

It  rains 

I  will  not  go 

—  either  by  the  use  of  a  connective: 

If  it  rains,  I  will  not  go; 
or  by  the  use  of  a  special  construction: 

Should  it  rain,  I  would  not  go. 


32  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

Fortunately,  the  English  language  is  rich  in  connectives 
that  express  the  various  logical  relationships.  When  there 
are  a  half  dozen  connectives  for  us  to  choose  among,  we 
ought  to  be  able  to  recall  one  immediately,  and  to  recall 
the  most  suitable  one  after  a  little  reflection.  Most  people 
have  only  a  handful  of  connectives  at  their  command,  but 
their  poverty  is  not  due  to  that  of  the  English  language. 
Following  is  a  table  that  includes  some  of  the  most  useful 
connectives: 

CONDITION 

if 

in  case  that 

provided  that 
TIME 

when 

before 

after 

while 

since 

till 

until 

prior  to 

as 

whenever 

as  often  as 

as  soon  as 

now  that 
PLACE 

where 

wherever 

whenever 

whither 
CONCESSION 

though 

although 


SUBORDINATION 


33 


CAUSE 


PURPOSE 


even  if 

in  spite  of 

notwithstanding 

since 
as 

because 
inasmuch  as 
in  that 

that 

so  that 

in  order  that 

for  the  purpose  of 

with  a  view  to 


RESULT 


COMPARISON 


MANNER 


so  that 
so 

such. . 


.that 
. .that 


as. 
so. 


,  as 
,as 


as 
as  if 


EXERCISE  XIV 

A.  Subordinate  either  statement  to  the  other; 

1.  I  saw  her. 

I  waved  my  handkerchief. 

2.  I  completed  the  task. 
I  went  to  bed. 

3.  I  worked  most  of  the  night. 
I  was  sleepy  the  next  day. 

4.  Germany  is  mastering  Russia. 
The  Allies  will  win  the  war. 


34  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

5.  Woodrow  Wilson  is  a  Virginian. 

He  is  clearly  one  of  our  greatest  Presidents. 

6.  Everybody  knows  that  Becky  Sharp  is  a  character  in  Vanity 
Fair. 

This  novel  was  written  by  Thackeray. 

7.  I  have  never  seen  a  famous  oil  painting. 
I  live  in  a  remote  part  of  the  mountains. 

B.  Write  a  list  of  the  phrases  and  clauses  in  "  Freshmen 
and  Life"   (see  pages  83-85)  that  indicate  (i)  Condition, 
(2)  Time,  (3)  Place,  (4  )  Concession,  (5)  Cause,  (6)  Purpose, 
(7)  Result,  (8)  Comparison,  (9)  Manner. 

C.  Rewrite  each  of  the  following  sentences  in  the  form  of 
a  single  sentence,  substituting,  so  far  as  possible,  subordi- 
nate constructions  for  coordinate  constructions: 

1.  He  was  an  inventor  and  as  such  he  proved  very  successful. 

2.  It  was  a  pretty  place,  and  so  we  thought  we  would  camp  there. 

3.  Holt  is  more  energetic  as  well  as  abler  than  the  other  men, 
and  he  may  be  counted  on  to  succeed. 

4.  We  walked  about  three  miles  east,  and  there  we  found  we 
had  come  to  the  end  of  the  path  —  a  steep  hill  rose  up  in 
front  of  us. 

5.  Some  think  that  the  man  who  reads  the  most  books  and 
remembers  the  most  facts  is  the  best  educated  man,  but  this 
is  true  only  for  the  ones  who  intend  to  teach;  they  alone  are 
educated  in  their  kind  of  work. 

6.  The  coal  is  brought  in  wagons,  and  it  is  afterwards  shoveled 
into  baskets,  and  it  is  then  carried  into  the  cellar. 

7.  We  can  save  a  great  deal  by  abiding  by  the  laws  of  the  Food 
Administration,  and  let  us  make  a  real  effort  to  use  only  the 
necessary  articles  of  food. 

8.  I  came  to  college  with  no  idea  of  what  I  should  do,  but  since 
I  entered,  I  have  decided  to  practice  law,  and  next  year  I 
shall  go  to  a  law  school  and  shall  prepare  myself  for  my 
profession. 


SUBORDINATION  35 

9.  This  town  got  its  name  from  Captain  John  Smith  and  is 
more  than  one  hundred  years  old,  but  the  inhabitants  num- 
ber only  about  eighteen  hundred. 
10.  It  had  rained  all  the  morning  and  it  was  raining  harder  that 

afternoon,  8#*d  we  decided  not  to  go  on  the  camping  trip. 
t.y'li.  Some  of  the  buildings  are  very  old,  with  bars  on  the  window, 
and  the  iron  doors  are  very  strong. 

12.  The  next  year  I  attended  school  at  Jameson  and  was  very 
successful  in  all  my  work  but  Latin,  and  I  dropped  it. 

13.  Statestown  has  a  great  many  stores,  and  all  of  them  do  good 
business. 

14.  After  I  entered  college,  it  was  two  days  before  classes  started; 
so  I  didn't  know  how  to  pass  the  time,  but  it  did  not  take 
me  long  to  get  acquainted  with  the  boys,  and  after  the  first 
few  days  I  began  to  enjoy  my  college  life. 

15.  Our  town  has  a  good  government  and  it  hardly  needs  the 
jail,  but  there  is  a  small  one. 

16.  We  were  riding  along  laughing  and  talking,  and  all  at  once 
a  tire  blew  out,  but  we  had  all  the  tools  with  us  and  it  did  not 
take  us  long  to  repair  it. 

17.  He  was  quite  different  from  his  companions,  and  it  turned 
out  that  he  was  a  nobleman,  but  he  had  suffered  a  great 
misfortune  and  had  been  driven  into  the  army. 

1 8.  In  the  schools  of  France  the  ideal  of  writing  well  is  constantly 
held  before  the  pupil,  and  this  is  the  case  in  both  the  lower 
and  the  higher  classes,  and  so  the  pupil  takes  pride  in  writing 
well,  but  in  America  we  have  no  such  tradition,  and  this  is 
one  reason  why  the  American  college  freshman  writes  badly. 

19.  He  walked  about  an  hour  and  then  reached  Blueville;  this 
is  a  little  village  eight  miles  from  Cordon. 

20.  She  became  uneasy,  and  was  afraid  that  something  had  be- 
fallen him,  and  she  wanted  to  go  in  search,  but  had  been  told 
never  to  go  further  than  that  sign,  and  so  she  had  to  wait. 

D.  Combine  each  of  the  following  groups  of  statements 
into  one  compact  sentence. 


36  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

1.  Braddock  feared  a  surprise  attack.     He  left  his  main  force 
behind.     They  were  to  guard  the  camp. 

2.  John  Milton  was  an  English  poet.     He  was  born  in  London. 
He  was  born  in  1608.     His  first  teacher  was  the  Puritan 
Thomas  Young. 

3.  The  house  stood  on  a  hill.     It  was  a  high  hill.    The  hill  was 
covered  with  trees.     The  trees  were  oaks.     They  were  very 
old  and  beautiful  trees.     The  house  was  always  shaded. 

*  4.  I  went  to  a  play  last  night.  The  play  was  Ccesar  and  Cleo- 
patra. It  was  written  by  Shaw.  The  play  was  very  inter- 
esting. The  characters  were  good.  The  speeches  were 
witty.  I  spent  a  most  enjoyable  evening. 

i  5.  Pope  was  of  a  tender  constitution.  He  was  of  a  delicate  con- 
stitution. He  was  so  from  birth.  But  he  is  said  to  have 
shown  two  characteristics.  One  was  a  remarkable  gentle- 
ness of  disposition.  Another  was  a  remarkable  sweetness 
of  disposition. 

'  6.  The  house  was  totally  dark.  It  was  like  its  neighbors.  He 
tapped  a  few  times.  He  heard  a  movement  overhead.  A 
door  was  opened.  A  voice  asked  who  was  there.  It  was  a 
cautious  voice.  A  woman  was  speaking.  She  was  speaking 
to  him. 

E.  Rewrite  the  following  paragraphs,  changing  to  sub- 
ordinate clauses  as  many  as  possible  of  the  principal  clauses 
(according  to  the  probable  logical  relationships),  and  using 
connectives  freely: 

We  were  certain  that  the  sun,  when  it  rose,  would  show  us  how 
to  proceed,  but  we  were  destined  to  be  disappointed;  a  thick  gray 
screen  of  clouds  made  it  impossible  to  tell  where  the  sun  was. 
We  had  given  up  all  hope  of  making  sure  of  the  points  of  the  com- 
pass, and  we  debated:  should  we  take  the  road  to  the  left  of  the 
cabin,  or  should  we  take  the  one  to  the  right?  I  wanted  to  bring 
the  debate  to  an  end;  so  I  pulled  out  a  coin  and  called  eagerly, 
"Heads  left,  tails  right!"  I  had  my  enthusiasm  all  to  myself. 
The  debate.  w.enL  on-  Arguments  were  adduced^  but  they  were. 


PARALLELISM  37 

always  promptly  refuted.  We  had  grown  hoarse  at  length,  and 
the  sun  suddenly  disclosed  itself  through  the  pines  on  the  hill. 
(Student's  Theme.) 

The  remainder  of  that  night  I  paced  to  and  fro  on  the  smooth 
highway,  and  I  reflected  on  the  future  and  the  past.  My  thoughts 
at  first  dwelled  tenderly  on  those  who  were  just  gone,  and  then 
took  a  more  manly  temper  as  I  considered  what  remained  for  me 
to  do.  Day  came  upon  the  inland  mountain-tops,  and  the  fowls 
began  to  cry  and  the  smoke  of  homesteads  to  arise  in  the  brown 
bosom  of  the  moors,  and  then  I  turned  my  face  homeward  and 
went  down  the  path  to  where  the  roof  of  Durrisdeer  shone  in  the 
morning  by  the  sea.  (Adapted  from  the  chapter  entitled  "The 
Enemy  in  the  House," -— some  eight  pages  from  the  end,  —  in 
Stevenson's  Master  of  Ballantrae;  the  exercise,  when  completed, 
might  well  be  compared  with  the  original  passage.) 

And  then  they  put  their  spears  in  the  rests,  and  came  together 
with  their  horses  as  fast  as  they  might  run,  and  either  smote 
others  in  middes  of  (in  the  middle  of)  their  shields,  that  both 
their  horses'  backs  brast  (broke)  under  them,  and  the  knights 
were  both  stonied  (stunned),  and  as  soon  as  they  might  avoid 
their  horses,  they  took  their  shields  afore  them,  and  drew  out 
their  swords,  and  came  together  eagerly,  and  either  gave  other 
many  strong  strokes,  for  there  might  neither  shields  nor  harness 
hold  their  strokes.  (From  Malory's  Morte  D 'Arthur,  bk.  vi,  ch. 
vin ;  everything  archaic  in  the  passage  should  be  modernized.) 

F.  Narrate  a  simple  incident  that  can  be  dealt  with  ade- 
quately in  a  page  or  two,  and  then  rewrite  it,  changing  to 
subordinate  clauses  as  many  as  possible  of  the  principal 
clauses. 

G.  Write  a  paragraph  of  100  to  200  words,  and  then  re- 
write it,  using  no  ands  or  buts  between  clauses,  and  not  al- 
lowing the  average  length  of  the  sentences  to  run  below 
fifteen  words. 

2.  Parallelism.  Let  us  follow  out  our  principle  that 
the  structure  of  the  sentence  depends  on  the  nature  of  the 


38  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING      •" 

thought  to  be  expressed,  and  observe  how  it  applies  to  one 
or  two  important  matters  of  sentence  construction.  We 
have  seen  that  when  any  parts  of  our  sentence-thought  are 
different  in  rank,  —  when  some  are  chief  and  others  are 
subordinate,  —  we  must,  in  order  to  be  strictly  truthful, 
express  this  logical  difference  through  a  structural  differ- 
ence. It  naturally  follows  that  when  any  parts  of  our  sen- 
tence-thought are  of  the  same  rank,  are  logically  coordi- 
nate, we  must  express  this  logical  sameness  through  a 
structural  sameness.  For  example,  let  us  suppose  that  we 
desire  to  express  a  complete  thought  composed  of  two  parts 
logically  coordinate.  We  shall  then  write  a  compound 
sentence  containing  two  clauses: 

The  postmaster-general  is  Mr.  Burleson,  and  the  attorney- 
general  is  Mr.  Palmer. 

If  our  thought  has  three  parts,  we  shall  write: 
I  came,  I  saw,  I  conquered. 

In  these  cases,  subordination  would  positively  distort  the 
thought;  it  would  not  be  quite  the  truth  to  say: 

Having  come,  I  saw,  I  conquered. 

The  postmaster-general  is  Mr.  Burleson,  the  attorney-general 
being  Mr.  Palmer. 

If  we  now  suppose  that  we  desire  to  express  a  complete 
thought  composed  of  three  constituent  thoughts,  one  main 
thought  and  two  subordinate  thoughts,  we  shall  of  course 
put  the  main  thought  into  the  principal  clause,  and  the 
subordinate  thoughts  into  parallel  subordinate  clauses: 

If  the  rain  stops,  and  if  the  roads  are  good  enough,  we  shall 
drive  on  to  Bridgton  in  the  morning. 

The  first  two  thoughts  have  been  expressed  in  the  form  of 
conditional  clauses  introduced  by  if,  because  they  are  re- 


PARALLELISM  39 

lated  to  the  third  and  main  thought  in  precisely  the  same 
way:  our  driving  on  to  Bridgton  is  dependent  on  two  con- 
tingencies. Since  the  subordinate  ideas  are  parallel,  they 
are  put  into  parallel  constructions.  It  would  not  do  to  say: 

Should  the  rain  stop,  and  if  the  roads  are  good  enough,  we  shall 
drive  on  to  Bridgton  in  the  morning. 

Should  is  a  verb,  while  if  is  a  conjunction.  There  could  be 
no  parallelism  until  we  changed  our  verb  and  conjunction 
to  either  two  verbs  or  two  conjunctions. 

Two  practical  suggestions,  if  borne  in  mind,  will  help  in 
the  detection  and  correction  of  faulty  parallelism.  First, 
remember  that  the  sign  of  parallelism  is  grammatical  —  we 
should  have  two  (or  more)  participles,  two  infinitives,  two 
pronouns,  two  prepositions,  etc.  If  the  principle  of  paral- 
lelism gives  us  trouble,  we  may  be  reasonably  certain  that 
the  cause  of  the  trouble  is  our  shabby  acquaintance  with 
grammatical  forms.  In  this  event,  the  obvious  remedy  is 
to  go  back  to  our  grammar  and  to  study  carefully,  among 
other  things,  the  parts  of  speech.  Before  we  can  master 
the  parallel  construction,  we  must  be  able  to  state  the  part 
of  speech  of  every  word  in  any  sentence. 

Secondly,  fix  your  attention  on  the  first  word  or  phrase. 
This  is  always  made  the  sign  of  parallelism.  Provided  that 
we  have  two  clauses  introduced  by  if  or  two  clauses  intro- 
duced by  should,  we  may  be  sure  that  they  are  parallel  even 
if  the  latter  parts  of  the  clauses  differ.  For  example,  in  the 
sentence  already  given  — 

If  the  rain  stops,  and  if  the  roads  are  good  enough,  we  shall 
drive  on  to  Bridgton  in  the  morning. 

—  the  phrase  good  enough  follows  the  are  of  the  second 
clause,  whereas  the  verb  stops  of  the  first  clause  stands 
alone;  and  yet  the  two  clauses  are  regarded  as  parallel  in 


40  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING  ^ 

construction,  just  as  two  lines  may  be  parallel  without 
being  of  the  same  length.  In  many  cases  of  parallelism, 
the  similarity  in  grammatical  forms  affects  only  the  first 
word  or  two,  as  in  this  sentence: 

He  said  that  it  ought  not  to  be  done,  and  that  he,  for  his  part, 
had  no  interest  in  it. 

Sometimes,  however,  the  two  constructions  are  parallel 
throughout,  as  in  this  sentence  from  an  essay  of  Arnold's: 

To  know  Italian  belles  lettres  is  not  to  know  Italy,  and  to  know 
English  belles  lettres  is  not  to  know  England. 

Here  the  two  members,  being  equivalent,  form  a  balanced 
as  well  as  a  parallel  construction.  The  principle  of  balance 
is  simply  an  extension  or  intensification  of  the  principle  of 
parallelism.  Neither  parallelism  nor  balance  is  restricted 
to  a  single  sentence;  either,  indeed,  may  affect  any  number 
of  successive  sentences.  Here  is  a  familiar  illustration 
from  Julius  Cezsar: 

Who  is  here  so  base  that  would  be  a  bondman?  If  any,  speak; 
for  him  have  I  offended.  Who  is  here  so  rude  that  would  not  be 
a  Roman?  If  any,  speak;  for  him  have  I  offended.  Who  is  here 
so  vile  that  will  not  love  his  country?  If  any,  speak;  for  him  have 
I  offended. 

One  of  the  most  useful  types  of  balanced  construction 
is  that  in  which  the  balance  rests  on  correlative  conjunc- 
tions (see  pp.  14-15).  For  example: 

Sincerity  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  not  only  in  the  choice  of 
subject,  but  also  in  the  execution  of  every  detail. 

Both  the  choice  of  subject  and  the  execution  of  every  detail 
should  be  entirely  sincere. 

Note  that  the  grammatical  forms  that  follow  the  correla- 
tives in  these  sentences  are  the  same:  "  not  only  in  .  .  .  but 
also  in"',  "Both  the  choice  .  .  .  and  the  execution" 


PARALLELISM  41 

EXERCISE  XV 

A.  PoinLout  the  parallel  constructions  in  the  following 
sentences  and  passages,  stating  in  each  case  whether  the 
constructions  begin  with  infinitives,  or  participles,  or 
gerund  phrases,  or  conjunctions,  etc. 

1.  (a)  Shouting  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  and  (b)  gesticulat- 
ing frantically,  he  made  us  stare  at  him  in  amazement. 
(Participles) 

2.  The  accident  occurred  because  the  streets  were  slippery  and 
because  the  driver  was  reckless.  ~~~T 

3.  He  wore  a  soft  hat,  a  military  cape,  and  mud-bespattered 
boots. 

4.  He  told  us  to  walk  a  mile  west,  to  turn  north  by  the  Bucks- 
town  turnpike,  and  to  proceed  as  far  as  the  railroad  bridge. 

5.  Since  he  refuses  to  come,  and  since  there  is  no  one  to  force 
him  to  come,  I  suppose  we  shall  have  to  get  along  without 
him. 

6.  I  met  him  three  times,  —  at  the  club,  on  the  street,  and  on 
the  ferry,  —  but  he  refused  to  look  at  me. 

7.  While  the  recollection  of  Mary's  cruelties  was  still  fresh, 
while  the  power  of  the  Catholic  party  still  inspired  appre- 
hension, while  Spain  still  retained  ascendency  and  aspired  to 
universal  dominion,  all  the  reformed  sects  knew  that  they 
had  a  strong  common  interest  and  a  deadly  common  enemy. 
(Macaulay) 

8.  It  has  been  sworn  on  the  tomb  of  Washington.     It  has  been 
sworn  on  the  tomb  of  our  allied  soldiers,  fallen  in  a  sacred 
cause.     It  has  been  sworn  by  the  bedside  of  our  wounded 
men.    It  has  been  sworn  on  the  heads  of  our  orphan  children. 
It  has  been  sworn  on  cradles  and  on  tombs.     It  has  been 
sworn!      (Fii'iani) 

9.  It  is  for  you  now  to  take  your  part  in  the  great  process  of 
reconciling  liberty  and  discipline.     Liberty  alone  scatters  in 
the  air  its  power;  discipline  alone  is  a  matter  for  slaves,  dull, 


42  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

sodden  slaves.  But  the  highest  attainment  of  the  people 
of  a  free  country,  the  highest  attainment  of  civilization,  is 
the  reconciliation  of  liberty  and  discipline;  discipline  con- 
scious of  freedom,  and  liberty  capable  of  discipline.  (Root) 
10.  Some  books  are  to  be  tasted,  others  to  be  swallowed,  and 
some  few  to  be  chewed  and  digested  —  that  is,  some  books 
are  to  be  read  only  in  parts,  others  to  be  read,  but  not 
curiously,  and  some  few  to  be  read  wholly,  and  with  dili- 
gence and  attention.  .  .  .  Reading  maketh  a  full  man, 
conference  a  ready  man,  and  writing  an  exact  man.  And 
therefore,  if  a  man  write  little  he  had  need  have  a  great 
memory;  if  he  confer  little  he  had  need  have  a  present  wit; 
and  if  he  read  little  he  had  need  have  much  cunning,  to  seem 
to  know  that  he  doth  not.  Histories  make  men  wise;  poets, 
witty;  the  mathematics,  subtle;  natural  philosophy,  deep; 
moral,  grave;  logic  and  rhetoric,  able  to  contend.  (Bacon) 

B.  Consider  the  value  of  parallelism  in  Lincoln's  famous 
letter  to  Horace  Greeley,  August  22,  1862. 

C.  Using  the  following  matter,  write  sentences  contain- 
ing as  many  varieties  of  parallelism  or  balance  as  possible: 

1.  The  several  reasons  why  you  came  to  college. 

2.  A  contrast  between  your  college  and  another  college. 

3.  Reasons  why  a  Freshman  is  superior  to  a  Sophomore. 

4.  A  summary  of  the  mode  of  instruction  in  theme  writing  in 
your  high  school. 

5.  The  chief  distinctions  of  your  town  or  county. 

*6.  A  summary  account  of  how  you  spend  your  evenings. 

7.  The  value  of  the  study  of  Latin,  or  Spanish,  or  German. 

8.  Several  underlying  causes  of  the  World  War. 

9.  Why  America  is  indebted  to  France. 

10.  A  contrast  between  autocracy  and  democracy. 

D.  Write  a  one-sentence  summary  (about  as  long  as  the 
model  below),  in  parallel  construction,  of  two  of  the  follow- 
ing poems  and  short  stories: 


PARALLELISM  43 

Poems:  "  Sir  Patrick  Spens,"  "  Chevy  Chase,"  "  Lord  Lovel." 
Milton's  "Comus."  Burns's  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night."  Tenny- 
son's "Locksley  Hall."  Browning's  "Incident  of  the  French 
Camp,"  "How  they  Brought  the  Good  News  from  Ghent  to 
Aix,"  "Herve  Kiel."  Noyes's  "Highwayman." 

Stories:  Irving's  "Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow."  Poe's  "Cask  of 
Amontillado,"  "A  Descent  into  the  Maelstrom,"  "Masque  of  the 
Red  Death."  Hawthorne's  "Great  Stone  Face,"  "Birthmark." 
Bret  Harte's  "Luck  of  Roaring  Camp."  Kale's  "Man  Without 
a  Country."  Miss  Jewett's  "Fame's  Little  Day."  O.  Henry's 
"Phoebe,"  "Gift  of  the  Magi,"  "A  Municipal  Report."  Hardy's 
"Three  Strangers."  Maupassant's  "Necklace,"  "Piece of  String." 
Bjornson's"  Father." 

"As  Toilsome  I  Wander'd  Virginia's  Woods"  is  a  poem  by 
Whitman  telling  how,  as  he  roamed  through  the  autumn  woods 
of  Virginia,  he  noticed  at  the  foot  of  a  tree  the  grave  of  a  soldier; 
how  he  imagined  the  circumstances  of  the  burial  —  the  death  of 
the  wounded  soldier  during  the  retreat,  the  halt  at  midday,  the 
quick  preparation  of  a  grave,  the  nailing  of  a  tablet  on  the 
tree  bearing  these  scrawled  words,  —  Bold,  cautious,  true,  and  my 
loving  comrade;  and  how,  in  the  years  that  followed,  the  image 
flashed  before  him  abruptly,  when  alone  or  in  the  street,  of  that 
unknown  soldier's  grave  in  the  woods  of  Virginia,  with  its  rude 
inscription,  —  Bold,  cautious,  true,  and  my  loving  comrade. 

E.  Write  a  one-sentence  description,  in  parallel  construc- 
tion, of  any  two  of  the  following  pictures  (obtainable,  if 
need  be,  in  the  University  Prints,  the  Perry  Pictures,  and 
similar  series): 

Willard,  "The  Spirit  of  '76."  Leutze,  "Washington  Crossing 
the  Delaware."  Boughton,  "Pilgrims  Going  to  Church."  Mil- 
lais,  "The  Boyhood  of  Raleigh."  Thompson,  "Charge  of  the 
Scotch  Grays  at  Waterloo."  Turner,  "The  Fighting  Temeraire." 
Millet,  "The  Man  with  the  Hoe,"  "The  Gleaners,"  "The  Ange- 
lus,"  "The  Sower."  Bonheur,  "The  Horse  Fair,"  "Ploughing." 
Poynter,  "Atalanta's  Race."  Raphael,  "The  Sistine  Madonna." 


44  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

Holman  Hunt,  "The  Light  of  the  World,"  "Finding  of  Christ 
in  the  Temple."    Leonardo  da  Vinci,  "The  Last  Supper." 

"Fog  Warning"  is  a  painting  by  Winslow  Homer  showing. 
in  the  foreground,  a  fisherman  in  a  dory  riding  a  great  wave; 
behind  him,  to  the  right,  a  sailing  ship  perhaps  a  mile  away; 
and,  beyond  the  ship  and  along  the  horizon,  a  dark,  streaming 
cloud  that  warns  the  fisherman,  as  he  looks  over  his  shoulder, 
of  the  perils  of  isolation  in  the  fog. 

F.  Detect  and  correct  faulty  parallelisms  in  these 
sentences : 

1.  The  crowd  began  singing  and  to  beat  time  to  the  music. 

2.  He  said  that  the  peasants  are  lazy,  uneducated,  and  that 
they  are  intensely  conservative. 

3.  I  believe  neither  in  his  wisdom  nor  do  I  trust  in  his  honesty. 

4.  I  knew  my  friends  had  arrived  and  that  they  were  safe. 

5.  He  sees  that  the  laws  are  carried  out  and  the  machinery  of 
the  government  working  well. 

6.  Not  only  does  he  learn  how  to  make  impromptu  speeches, 
but  also  learns  a  better  use  of  the  English  language. 

7.  The  first  reason  was  that  he  stood  for  what  the  people 
wanted,  and  the  second  -was  Wratree  he  was  the  representa- 
tive of  the  strongest  party. 

8.  It  is  a  democracy  because  the  individualistic  spirit  is  present 
and  the  people  having  control  of  the  government. 

9.  They  soon  became  stronger  in  character  and  in  wisdom,  and 
also  in  prosperity. 

10.  Independence  inspired  the  people  with  a  new  courage,  a  new 
hope,  and  a  determination  that  was  also  new. 

11.  At  that  time  I  had  the  hope  of  becoming  a  doctor  and  prob- 
ably specialize  in  some  branch  of  medicine. 

12.  Patience  is  no  longer  a  virtue,  further  endurance  is  coward- 
ice, it  would  be  slavery  to  submit  to  Prussian  demands. 

13.  He  was  of  medium  stature,  of  a   ruddy  complexion,  and 
weighed  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds. 


EMPHASIS  45 

14.  Some  of  these  books  are  required,  others  are  recommended, 
and  there  are  others  that  are  only  suggested. 

15.  The  house,  old  and  dust-covered,  and  which  had  not  been 
occupied  for  many  years,  at  last  had  an  occupant. 

3.  Emphasis.  Telling  the  truth  we  have  found  to  be  a 
very  difficult  task;  nor  have  we  yet  come  to  the  end  of  the 
matter.  If  we  have  learned  to  give  the  shades  of  our 
thought  with  approximate  exactness  by  subordinating  all 
subordinate  matter,  coordinating  all  coordinate  matter, 
and  making  parallel  all  parallel  matter,  we  have  indeed 
been  apt  apprentices  in  the  art  of  telling  the  truth;  but 
mastery  requires  of  us  that  we  tell,  not  only  the  truth,  but 
the  whole  truth.  Absolute  mastery  we  can  scarcely  hope 
to  attain  —  that  is  reserved  for  the  Homers,  and  Dantes, 
and  Shaksperes,  the  great  truth-tellers,  who  give  us,  if  not 
all  the  truth,  all  the  truth  as  they  saw  it.  So  far  we  lesser 
men  cannot  hope  to  go;  but  we  should  go  as  far  as  we  can. 

One  obvious  thing  remains  to  be  done.  I  may  subor- 
dinate and  coordinate  faithfully  without  approximating 
the  truth,  simply  because  I  have  ignored  relative  values 
among  my  thoughts.  The  public  speaker  who  gives  two- 
thirds  of  his  time  to  introductory  remarks,  and  only  one- 
third  to  his  speech  proper,  is  very  far  from  telling  the  truth 
The  writer  whose  paragraph  is  top-heavy,  who  brings  his 
paragraph  to  a  conclusion  suddenly  because  it  is  becoming 
alarmingly  long,  is  not  writing  a  truthful  paragraph.  The 
writer  whose  sentence  does  not  mirror  the  symmetry  of  his 
thought  (assuming  that  it  has  symmetry),  whose  sentence 
does  not  throw  into  relief  what  is  important  and  leave  in 
the  background  what  is  relatively  unimportant,  has  not 
yet  learned  to  write  even  an  approximately  truthful  sen- 
tence. There  are  several  ways  of  giving  thoughts  con- 
spicuousness  or  emphasis. 


46  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

Italics.  School-girls  writing  letters,  in  which  they  are 
pleased  to  regard  nearly  everything  as  all-important,  un- 
derline abundantly.  In  print,  italics  are  equivalent  to 
underlining.  They  are  used  sparingly  by  skillful  writers, 
the  volcanic  Carlyle  being  a  notable  exception.  In  the 
following  passage,  for  example,  Carlyle  has  used  italics  for 
several  words  (including  even  part  of  a  word)  and  capital 
letters  for  other  words : 

He  is  a  Columbus  minded  to  sail  to  the  indistinct  country  of 
NOWHERE,  to  the  indistinct  country  of  WHITHERWARD, 
by  the  friendship  of  those  same  waste-tumbling  Water-Alps  and 
howling  waltz  of  All  the  Winds;  not  by  conquest  of  them  and  in 
spite  of  them,  but  by  friendship  of  them,  when  once  they  have 
made  up  their  mind!  He  is  the  most  original  Columbus  I  ever 
saw.  Nay,  his  problem  is  not  an  impossible  one:  he  will  infalli- 
bly arrive  at  that  same  country  of  NOWHERE;  his  indistinct 
Whitherward  will  be  a  Thitherwardl  In  the  Ocean  Abysses  and 
Locker  of  Davy  Jones,  there  certainly  enough  do  he  and  his 
ship's  company,  and  all  their  cargo  and  navigations,  at  last  find 
lodgement. 

Carlyle,  it  should  be  remembered,  had  a  better  right  than 
we  to  use  these  mechanical  devices  frequently,  because 
he  used  them  in  addition  to,  not  in  place  of,  superior  means 
of  securing  emphasis.  What  are  these  superior  means? 

Improvement  of  the  Words.  One  of  the  best  means,  yet 
one  of  the  least  used  by  the  student,  is  aa  improvement  of 
the  words.  Words  may  be  improved  in  several  ways, 
(i)  They  may  be  made  stronger,  more  intense,  in  meaning. 
If  I  write,  "I  shall  be  glad  to  come,"  and  feel  that  I  have 
not  conveyed  enough  gladness,  I  may,  indeed,  simply  ital- 
icize the  important  word  —  "I  shall  be  glad  to  come." 
But  I  could  express  my  pleasure  more  effectively  by  casting 
about  for  a  stronger  word  than  glad  —  possibly  delighted. 


EMPHASIS  47 

(2)  They  may  be  made  more  fresh.  How  quickly  a  word  or 
phrase  loses  its  effectiveness  through  repetition!  "  Weird," 
"  busy  as  a  bee,"  "  along  this  line/'  "  potent  factor,"  and 
hundreds  of  other  expressions  have  been  used  so  often  that 
they  meet  the  ear  dully.  Slang  is  objectionable,  among 
other  reasons,  because  it  is  hackneyed.  Journalistic  ex- 
pressions are  objectionable  for  the  same  reason.  So  are 
colloquialisms.  Whatever  the  character  of  the  worn-out 
expression,  the  remedy  consists  in  replacing  it  with  one  that 
is  chosen,  not  because  it  comes  to  mind  readily,  but  be- 
cause it  fits  the  context;  if  we  will  but  resolutely  endeavor 
to  say  what  is  in  our  minds  our  words  will  be  fresh  and  vital 
and  not  trite  and  lifeless.  We  do  not  mean  "feathered 
songsters":  we  mean  birds,  or  possibly  wood  thrushes. 
"  He  spoke  with  pep  "  is  not  only  vulgar,  but  also  stupidly 
vague:  we  mean,  perhaps,  that  he  spoke  with  passion 
or  he  spoke  with  energy,  or  with  enthusiasm,  or  anima- 
tion, or  excitement,  or  bitterness,  or  elation,  or  what  not. 
A  word  that  really  fits  is  always  fresh.  (3)  They  may  be 
made  more  specific.  We  do  most  of  our  thinking  in  speci- 
fic, not  general,  terms;  even  when  class  names  are  given, 
we  often  transform  them  mentally  into  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  class.  We  are  always  eager  to  visualize  —  and 
general  terms  convey  only  the  vaguest  of  images.  There- 
fore the  statement  "He  went  across  the  room  "  is  much  less 
emphatic  than  "He  strode  across  the  room"  (or  "hob- 
bled," "ambled,"  "picked  his  way");  "He  came  soon 
after"  than  "He  came  in  five  minutes";  "It  was  a  good 
sermon"  than  "It  was  a  stirring  sermon";  "The  clouds 
were  colored  with  a  very  pretty  tint "  than  "  The  clouds 
were  tinted  salmon-pink."  Though,  of  course,  general 
terms  have  their  place,  the  novice  will  do  well  to  follow 
this  rule:  Always  aim  to  write  concretely. 


48  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

Climax.  Assuming  that  the  words  chosen  to  express  our 
thoughts  are  strong  enough  to  bear  our  meaning,  we  have 
next  to  consider  the  emphatic  ordering  of  them.  When  our 
thoughts  are  parallel  but  different  in  value  —  in  intensity, 
in  importance,  in  definiteness,  in  interest  —  we  should  in- 
dicate the  gradations  by  the  use  of  a  climactic  arrangement, 
an  ascending  series.  The  English  word  "climax"  comes 
from  a  Greek  word  meaning  "a  ladder."  In  a  ladder  the 
rungs  are,  of  course,  placed  one  above  the  other,  so  that  the 
climber  progresses  toward  his  object;  similarly,  in  a  sen- 
tence involving  parallel  members  of  differing  values,  the 
parallel  members  should  be  so  placed  that  there  is  progress 
from  those  of  lesser  value  to  those  of  greater.  "Your  son 
is  very  ill  —  seriously  ill  —  desperately  ill"  has  emphasis 
because  the  order  is  climactic.  We  should  have  an  anti- 
climax if  we  wrote,  instead,  "Your  son  is  desperately  ill  — 
seriously  ill  —  very  ill."  This  would  violate  the  rising  in- 
tensity of  the  thoughts  we  are  representing  in  language. 
Again,  "The  wind  had  ceased,  the  color  faded  out  of  the 
western  sky,  and  a  dozen  whippoorwills  began  calling  vocif- 
erously, till  our  ears  throbbed  with  the  sound,"  has  em- 
phasis through  climax.  In  this  case,  instead  of  a  rising 
intensity,  we  have  an  increase  in  both  definiteness  and  in- 
terest. To  have  produced  our  whippoorwill  concert  first 
and  then  gone  back  to  the  bare  fact  of  the  wind's  ceasing 
would  have  been  to  obliterate  one  thought  through  the 
splendor  of  another.  As  Herbert  Spencer  remarks,  you 
cannot  see  the  light  of  a  fire  after  looking  at  the  sun,  but  if 
you  look  at  the  fire  first  you  can  see  both. 

Departure  from  the  Normal  Word  Order.  Any  deviation 
from  the  norm,  whether  in  manners  or  in  rhetoric,  attracts 
attention.  Any  one  who  has  learned  to  read  has  become  so 


EMPHASIS  49 

accustomed  to  a  certain  word  order  —  subject,  verb,  and 
complement  —  that  he  notices,  or  feels  unconsciously, 
every  clear  case  of  departure  from  this  standard.  For  this 
reason  these  sentences  — 

I  picked  him  out  from  all  the  rest. 

We  lesser  men  cannot  go  so  far. 

I  will  crush  to  pieces  whoever  opposes  me. 

—  are  less  emphatic  than  these: 

Him  I  picked  out  from  all  the  rest. 

So  far  we  lesser  men  cannot  go. 

Who  opposes  me  I  will  crush  to  pieces! 

In  practice,  this  principle  means:  If  your  sentence  does  not 
throw  into  relief  your  main  thoughts,  transpose  some  of 
the  words  and  phrases  experimentally  until  it  does.  ' 

Placing  Important  Matter  at  the  End  of  the  Sentence.  An 
excellent  means  of  securing  emphasis  —  one  that  can  be 
resorted  to  in  nearly  every  sentence,  and  that  can  be  ap- 
plied with  ease  —  consists  in  placing  important  matter  at 
the  end  of  the  sentence.  The  beginning  of  the  sentence  is 
also  a  conspicuous  place,  but  since  the  end  is  much  more 
conspicuous  and  since  most  writers  cannot  consciously  at- 
tend to  both,  we  shall  find  it  advisable  to  concentrate  our 
attention  on  the  end.  It  is  not  hard  to  explain  why  the 
end  is  emphatic:  upon  reaching  the  period,  the  reader 
stops  for  a  moment  to  reflect,  to  get  his  mental  wind,  be- 
fore entering  upon  the  next  thought,  and  while  he  is  paus- 
ing he  notices  most  vividly  what  is  nearest  him  —  the  last 
words  of  the  sentence.  In  most  sentences  there  are  what 
we  might  term  "pivotal  words,"  on  which  the  meaning  of 
the  sentence  rests.  In  the  sentence,  "I  think,  however, 
that  his  attitude  is  wrong,"  the  pivotal  words,  the  impor- 
tant words,  are  obviously  attitude  and  wrong,  the  latter  be- 


50  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

ing  the  most  important  word  in  the  entire  sentence.  The 
sentence  has  emphasis.  But  place  another  word  at  the 
end,  and  observe  how  the  sentence  loses  its  ring: 

I  think  that  his  attitude  is  wrong,  however. 
However,  his  attitude  is  wrong,  I  think. 

The  difference  in  arrangement  is  slight;  the  difference  in 
effect  is  highly  important.  Again,  when  President  Wilson 
wrote: 

A  steadfast  concert  for  peace  can  never  be  maintained  except 
by  a  partnership  of  democratic  nations. 

—  he  rightly  placed  at  the  end  the  pivotal  words,  demo- 
cratic nations.    Tuck  away  these  words  in  the  interior  of 
the  sentence,  and  you  spoil  the  effect: 

A  steadfast  concert  for  peace  can  never  be  maintained  except 
by  the  democratic  nations  in  partnership. 

—  which  implies  that  partnership  is  the  pivotal  word. 

When  we  have  acquired  the  habit  of  reserving  our  im- 
portant words  for  the  close  of  the  sentence,  we  are  ready 
to  extend  this  practice  to  the  rest  of  the  sentence.  If  the 
reader's  mind  pauses  at  the  end  of  a  sentence,  it  is  also  true 
that  it  pauses,  more  briefly,  wherever  there  is  punctuation 
within  the  sentence.  Generally  speaking,  the  punctuation 
marks  off  what  we  have  called  constituent  thoughts.  A 
sentence  in  which  the  logical  divisions  are  not  thus  indi- 
cated is  ordinarily  not  so  easy  to  understand  as  a  sen- 
tence in  which  the  divisions  are  indicated  by  punctuation. 
The  following  sentence  from  Theodore  Roosevelt's  "  Char- 
ter of  Democracy"  speech  is  an  example: 

Let  us  remember,  also,  that  Conservation  does  not  stop  with 
the  natural  resources,  but  that  the  principle  of  making  the  best 


EMPHASIS  51 

use  of  all  we  have  requires  with  equal  or  greater  insistence  that 
we  shall  stop  the  waste  of  human  life  in  industry  and  prevent  the 
waste  of  human  welfare  which  flows  from  the  unfair  use  of  con- 
centrated power  and  wealth  in  the  hands  of  men  whose  eagerness 
for  profits  blinds  them  to  the  cost  of  what  they  do. 

Here  and  there  such  a  sentence,  if  emphatically  phrased, 
is  effective;  ordinarily,  however,  it  lacks  emphasis  because 
no  words  in  it,  save  the  last,  are  stressed,  and  the  total 
result  is  more  or  less  of  a  blur.  Not  content,  then,  with 
placing  the  pivotal  words  just  before  the  period,  we  should 
make  some  effort  to  place  other  important  words  just  be- 
fore the  commas  and  semicolons,  as  Roosevelt  does  in  this 
sentence: 

We  stand  for  applying  the  Constitution  to  the  issues  of  to-day 
as  Lincoln  applied  it  to  the  issues  of  his  day;  Lincoln  mind  you, 
and  not  Buchanan,  was  the  real  upholder  and  preserver  of  the 
Constitution,  for  the  true  progressive,  the  progressive  of  the  Lin- 
coln stamp,  is  the  only  true  constitutionalist,  the  only  real 
conservative. 

Suspense.  Still  another  principle,  suspense,  serves  the 
end  of  emphasis.  The  close  of  the  sentence,  we  have 
found,  is  the  most  emphatic  part  of  it;  we  can  add  still 
more  to  the  emphasis  at  the  close  if  we  suspend  the  thought, 
keep  the  secret  of  the  sentence,  until  we  reach  the  last 
word.  Examine  the  following  sentences: 

The  impulse  of  the  English  race  toward  moral  development 
and  self-conquest  has  manifested  itself  in  Puritanism,  and  more 
powerfully  than  anywhere  else. 

The  impulse  of  the  English  race  toward  moral  development 
and  self-conquest  has  nowhere  so  powerfully  manifested  itself  as 
in  Puritanism. 

The  second  sentence  is  stronger,  not  only  because  the  piv- 


52  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

otal  word  Puritanism  is  placed  at  the  end,  but  also  because 
our  sense  of  grammatical  completeness  is  not  satisfied  until 
we  reach  the  concluding  word.  The  meaning  is  suspended 
—  the  reader  retains  the  thought  expectantly  —  illumina- 
tion comes  suddenly  and  brilliantly  with  the  word  Puritan- 
ism. A  sentence  in  which  grammatical  completeness  is 
thus  reserved  to  the  end  is  termed  a  periodic  sentence;  a 
sentence  in  which  the  thought  is  completed  piecemeal  is 
termed  a  loose  sentence.  In  nearly  all  good  writing,  the 
loose  sentence  predominates;  but  no  modern  style  is  likely 
to  be  effective  in  which  periodic  sentences,  or  virtually 
periodic  sentences,  do  not  abound.  Since  a  loose  sentence 
may  be  composed  as  the  writer  proceeds,  without  much 
concern  for  what  is  coming,  it  is  only  too  good  a  medium 
for  the  expression  of  flaccid  thought  —  firm  when  com- 
posed by  a  skillful  writer,  it  often  sprawls  at  the  touch  of  a 
slovenly  writer.  Though  a  style  that  is  constantly  periodic 
makes  tiresome  reading,  a  writer  who  is  still  serving  his  ap- 
prenticeship would  not  go  far  astray  if  he  tried  to  employ 
the  principle  of  suspense  whenever  an  opportunity  pre- 
sented itself.  When  the  meaning  is  suspended  to  the  last 
words  of  the  sentence,  the  writer  is  obliged  to  see  his  goal, 
however  dimly,  before  he  begins  to  write  his  sentence. 
That  makes  for  well-knit  sentences.  A  practical  hint  to 
utilize  when  one  is  trying  to  cast  a  sentence  in  a  periodic 
mould  is  this:  reserve  the  subject  of  the  sentence  for  a  posi- 
tion as  near  the  end  as  possible,  or,  what  often  amounts  to 
the  same  thing,  put  the  subordinate  clauses  and  phrases 
first  and  the  principal  clause  last. 

EXERCISE  XVI 

A.  Underline  the  pivotal  words  in  the  following  sen- 
tences: 


EMPHASIS  53 

1.  I  have  not  read  history  without  observing  that  the  greatest 
forces  in  the  world  and  the  only  permanent  forces  are  the 
moral  forces. 

2.  The  French  Revolution  inaugurated  a  new  movement  not 
only  for  France,  but  for  the  whole  world. 

3.  The  teachers  of  morality  discourse  like  angels,  but  they  live 
like  men. 

4.  No  man  can  taste  the  fruits  of  autumn  while  he  is  delighting 
his  scent  with  the  flowers  of  the  spring;  no  man  can  at  the 
same  time  fill  his  cup  from  the  source  and  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Nile. 

5.  The  beginning  and  the  end  of  what  is  the  matter  with  us  in 
these  days  is  that  we  have  forgotten  God. 

6.  Ignorance,  when  it  is  voluntary,  is  criminal. 

7.  But  the  final  value  of  action,  like  that  of  books,  and  better 
than  books,  is  that  it  is  a  resource. 

8.  Government  is  a  contrivance  of  human  wisdom  to  provide 
for  human  wants. 

B.  Of   the   following   sentences,    determine   which   are 
periodic,  which  are  virtually  periodic,  and  which  are  loose: 

1.  He  has,  we  are  glad  to  say,  avoided  both  these  extremes. 

2.  I  came  here  to  meet  my  friend,  who  was  to  return  as  soon 
as  he  had  finished  his  business. 

3.  Although  his  reading  was  without  plan,  he  learned  much. 

4.  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

5.  I  often  saw  the  General,  taking  the  liberty  to  call  on  him 
frequently. 

6.  He  found  the  task  so  disagreeable  that  he  soon  gave  up  in 
disgust. 

7.  Finding  it  impossible  to  refuse,  he  consented,  though  with 
great  reluctance. 

8.  Without  further  delay,  he  sprang  from  behind  the  garden 
wall  silently. 

9.  With  a  trace  of  hysteria  both  began  to  laugh. 


54  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

10.  What  men  allow  themselves  to  wish,  they  will  soon  believe, 
and  will  be  at  last  incited  to  execute  what  they  please  them- 
selves with  contriving. 

11.  This  doubt  troubled  him,  this  terror,  this  fear. 

12.  From  morning  to  night  steadily  had  he  worked. 

13.  Whatever  the  author  might  tell  either  his  readers  or  himself, 
I  am  not  convinced  that  the  design  was  moral. 

14.  Columbus,  who  sailed  across  an  ocean  that  was  unknown  to 
others,  and  who,  though  entreated  by  his  sailors  to  discon- 
tinue the  voyage,  persevered  until  his  end  was  gained,  was 
a  type  of  the  persistent  man. 

15.  Lincoln,  who  did  not  have  the  advantages  of  many  people, 
but  who  made  use  of  every  possible  opportunity  to  become 
educated,  was  a  persistent  worker  also. 

1 6.  The  moment  this  view  of  culture  is  seized,  the  moment  it  is 
regarded  not  solely  as  the  endeavor  to  see  things  as  they  are, 
to  draw  towards  a  knowledge  of  the  universal  order  which 
seems  to  be  intended  and  aimed  at  in  the  world,  and  which 
it  is  a  man's  happiness  to  go  along  with  or  his  misery  to 
go  counter  to,  —  to  learn,  in  short,  the  will  of  God,  —  the 
moment,  I  say,  culture  is  considered  not  merely  as  the 
endeavor  to  see  and  learn  this,  but  as  the  endeavor  also  to 
make  it  prevail,  the  moral,  social,  and  beneficent  character 
of  culture  becomes  manifest.     (Arnold.) 

17.  And  in  like  manner,  what  is  called  seeing  the  world,  entering 
into  active  life,  going  into  society,  traveling,  gaining  ac- 
quaintance with  the  various  classes  of  the  community,  com- 
ing into  contact  with  the  principles  and  modes  of  thought  of 
various  parties,  interests,  and  races,  their  views,  aims,  habits, 
and  manners,  their  religious  creeds  and  forms  of  worship,  — 
gaining  experience  how  various  yet  how  alike  men  are,  how 
low-minded,  how  bad,  how  opposed,  yet  how  confident  in 
their  opinions;  all  this  exerts  a  perceptible  influence  upon 
the  mind,  which  it  is  impossible  to  mistake,  be  it  good  or  be 
it  bad,  and  is  popularly  called  its  enlargement.    (Newman.) 

1 8.  This  flat,  flourishing,  easy  country  never  could  have  looked 


EMPHASIS  55 

more  rich  and  prosperous,  than  in  that  opening  summer  of 
1815,  when  its  green  fields  and  quiet  cities  were  enlivened  by 
multiplied  red-coats:  when  its  wide  chaussees  swarmed  with 
brilliant  English  equipages;  when  its  great  canal-boats, 
gliding  by  rich  pastures  and  pleasant  quaint  old  villages,  by 
old  chateaux  lying  amongst  old  trees,  were  all  crowded  with 
well-to-do  English  travelers;  when  the  soldier  who  drank 
at  the  village  inn,  not  only  drank,  but  paid  his  score;  and 
Donald,  the  Highlander,  billeted  in  the  Flemish  farm-house, 
rocked  the  baby's  cradle,  while  Jean  and  Jeannette  were  out 
getting  in  the  hay.  (  Thackeray.) 

(See  also  the  selections  on  pages  79-91.) 

C.  Classify  the  sentences  of  one  or  two  of  your  themes 
with  regard  to  periodicity. 

D.  Write  ten  periodic  or  virtually  periodic  sentences, 
each  sentence  longer  than  the  one  before. 

E.  Study  the  placing  of  pivotal  words  and  other  impor- 
tant words  in  an  essay  by  Macaulay,  an  address  by  Presi- 
dent Wilson,  etc. 

F.  Write  ten  sentences  in  which  the  pivotal  words  are 
placed  at  the  end. 

G.  Write  ten  sentences  involving  a  departure  from  the 
natural  word  order. 

H.  Convert  all  the  periodic  sentences  in  B  into  loose  and 
the  loose  into  periodic  sentences. 

I.  Make  the  following  sentences  more  emphatic  by  im- 
proving the  italicized  words: 

1 .  He  preached  a  good  sermon. 

2.  The  view  from  Pike's  Peak  is  interesting. 

3.  I  am  certainly  sorry  to  hear  of  his  death. 

4.  Thinking  he  was  in  France,  I  was  surprised  to  see  him  walk- 
ing down  the  village  street. 


56  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

5.  I  believe  that  his  robbing  the  bank  was  wrong. 

6.  She  is  an  awfully  nice  girl. 

7.  It  was  a  fine  day;  the  sun  was  shining  brightly;  and  the  sky 
was  clear. 

8.  I  spoke  to  him  along  these  lines  as  he  sat  smoking  the  fra- 
grant weed. 

9.  When  called  upon  to  speak,  he  managed  to  reply  in  a  few 
well-chosen  words  and  to  make  a  speech  that  was  worthy  of 
a  better  cause. 

10.  It's  a  cinch  that  I'm  not  going  to  kick  against  the  grade 
Prof  White  gave  me  in  English  Lit. 

11.  I  got  only  a  look  as  the  runaway  horse  passed  by  me. 

12.  The  trains  came  together  with  a  big  noise. 

13.  The  surprised  soldier   at   once   picked  up  the  bomb   and 
threw  it  back  into  the  enemy's  trench. 

14.  The  heavy  body  of  the  suffering  animal/*?//  to  the  floor. 

15.  The  frightened  deer  ran  away  from  us. 

J.  Improve  the  wording  of  the  following  description: 

It  was  a  fine  autumn  landscape  all  right.  The  trees  were 
brightly  colored,  and  the  river  could  be  seen  running  through  the 
meadows  and  woods.  The  furry  denizens  of  the  forest  were  getting 
ready  for  the  snow  and  old  Boreas.  Down  by  the  river  a  bird 
could  be  heard  singing,  and  another  kind  of  bird  was  hammering  in 
the  woods.  Smoke  was  coming  out  of  the  chimney  of  a  farm- 
house nestling  in  the  valley,  beside  which  a  few  trees  stood  like 
sentinels* 

4.  Economy.  Writing  is  not,  of  course,  a  private  matter. 
When  we  speak  of  it  as  self-expression  we  do  not  mean  that 
we  write  merely  to  amuse  ourselves,  to  give  our  powers 
play.  Sometimes  we  do  write  for  such  a  motive;  but  at 
the  same  time,  in  the  background  of  the  mind,  is  an  ever- 
present  sense  of  the  public.  Unconsciously  we  are  ever 
asking  ourselves  such  questions  as:  "Will  this  be  clear  to 
the  reader  1"  "  Will  he  get  the  full  force  of  this  1"  "  Could 


ECONOMY  57 

this  be  misinterpreted?"  Writing  should  be  regarded, 
then,  not  as  soliloquy,  but  as  the  transmission  of  thought 
from  one  mind  to  another.  It  is  not  an  end  in  itself,  but  a 
means  —  a  machine  for  the  transmission  of  thought,  as 
the  wireless  telegraph  is. 

It  follows  that  good  writing,  like  good  machinery,  must 
operate  smoothly,  with  a  minimum  of  friction.  Economy 
demands  that  the  thought  be  transferred  in  its  entirety 
and  without  distortion.  Any  mode  of  writing  that  calls 
attention  to  itself  violates  the  principle  of  economy.  If 
the  attention  of  the  reader  is  attracted  to  offensive  mis- 
spellings, to  blunders  in  grammar,  to  misleading  punctua- 
tion, to  the  use  of  slang,  to  excessive  cleverness  in  phrasing, 
to  the  use  of  showy  language,  to  monotony  of  sentence  con- 
struction, the  amount  of  attention  given  to  the  thought  is 
diminished  in  proportion.  It  is  as  though,  in  telling  a  man 
where  Squire  Jones  lives,  we  interspersed  our  directions 
with  disturbing  comments  on  the  state  of  the  weather  and 
the  high  cost  of  living  in  these  parts.  Once  more  we  must 
return  to  our  fundamental  principle:  the  truth,  the  whole 
truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  It  is  the  writer's  mes- 
sage that  we  want,  nothing  more  or  less. 

Two  kinds  of  friction  are  especially  to  be  avoided;  the 
expression  of  thought  is  retarded  by  every  tangled  con- 
struction, and  clogged  by  every  unnecessary  word: 

Tangled  Constructions.  When  the  structure  of  your  sen- 
tence is  involved,  you  are  unconsciously  asking  the  reader 
to  untangle  it,  to  recast  it  mentally,  —  to  repair  your 
machinery,  —  before  he  can  quite  grasp  the  meaning. 
Consider  the  thought  of  the  following  sentence  from  Pride 
and  Prejudice: 

The  vague  and  unsettled  suspicions  which  uncertainty  had 


58  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

produced  of  what  Mr.  Darcy  might  have  been  doing  to  forward 
her  sister's  match  which  she  had  feared  to  encourage,  as  an  exer- 
tion of  goodness  too  great  to  be  probable,  and  at  the  same  time 
dreaded  to  be  just,  from  the  pain  of  obligation,  were  proved  be- 
yond their  greatest  extent  to  be  true! 

What  does  it  all  mean  ?  Jane  Austen  did  not  often  write  so 
tangled  a  sentence. 

Unnecessary  Words.  When  you  use  an  unnecessary 
word  or  phrase,  you  are  putting  an  obstacle,  however 
slight,  before  the  reader  —  are  throwing  sand  on  the  ma- 
chinery. Our  words  should  be  adequate,  neither  too  few 
nor  too  many.  The  danger  of  using  too  few  words  is  not 
serious,  since  to  say  a  thing  briefly  is  harder  than  to  say  it 
verbosely.  The  danger  of  using  too  many  words  must  be 
constantly  remembered  by  the  writer  who  aims  at  skillful 
expression.  Sometimes  he  can  reduce  the  number  of  words 
by  simply  omitting  some  of  them,  as  in  this  sentence: 

Whenever  I  meet  him  he  [always]  greets  me. 

At  other  times  he  can  do  it  by  condensing  the  phrasing, 
by  substituting,  that  is,  a  short  phrase  for  a  longer  one,  as 
in  this  sentence: 

He  was  very  sorry  indeed  to  hear  the  bad  news. 
He  was  grieved  to  hear  the  news. 

EXERCISE  XVII 

A.     Recast  the  following  sentences  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  bring  out  clearly  the  intended  meaning. 

1.  Germany  was  not  long  in  seeing  that  by  the  acquisition  of 
Alsace-Lorraine  France  would  be  reduced  to  a  second-class 
power,  and  at  the  same  time  bring  Germany  to  the  fiont. 

2.  The  Monroe  Doctiine  is  a  policy  of  the  United  States  to 
regard  the^attempt  of  any  European  power  to  gain  a  foothold 


ECONOMY  59 

in  the  New  World  by  conquest,  or  to  acquire  any  new  estab- 
lishment in  America  by  any  means,  will  be  considered  as  an 
unfriendly  act  to  the  United  States. 

3.  When  I  remember  how  hard  it  was  for  me  in  those  days  early 
in  the  term  to  write  a  short  theme,  I  marvel  —  even  a  one- 
page  theme  —  I  really  marvel  that  I  ever  survived  those 
days,  when  I  consider  how  the  words  come  trippingly  from 
my  pen  now,  these  days,  when  writing  is  a  simple  matter  to 
me,  and  the  contrast  is  great. 

4.  When  these  acts  of  violence  would  reach  the  press  and   be 
immediately  published  only  added  fuel  to  the  flames. 

5.  If  it  does  not  rain  to-morrow,  we  shall  drive  on  to  Himmels- 
ville,  if  the  roads  are  good  enough. 

6.  Because  the  Germans  have  taken  possession  of  Russian 
provinces  and  invaded  the  heart  of  Russia  proves  that  the 
Germans  are  insincere  in  their  promises. 

7.  He  runs  a  hotel  which  there  are  not  the  best  things  in  the 
world  said  about  it. 

8.  As  we  approached  the  fire,  we  saw  piles  of  furniture  and 
other  articles  which  boys  had  brought  from  the  fraternity 
houses,  which  two  of  them  were  burning  very  fast. 

B.     Condense  the  phrasing  in  the  following  sentences 
and  paragraphs  without  subtracting  from  the  thought. 

1.  The  wounded  prisoner  was  suffering  intensely  from  his 
painful  wounds. 

2.  I  know  that  I  am  right,  for  I  saw  the  accident  as  an  eye- 
witness. 

3.  With  not  a  single  opposing  vote,  he  was  unanimously  elected 
president. 

4.  All  the  crowd  rose  together  upon  their  feet  with  one  accord 
and  wildly  waved  their  hats  in  their  hands. 

5.  He  is  at  the  height  of  his  power  and  will  never  be  more 
powerful. 

6.  In  place  of  the  regular  night  service  an  afternoon  service 
will  be  substituted  instead. 


60  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

7.  He  is  universally  praised  by  everybody. 

8.  There  are  several  reasons  for  the  great  interest  taken  in  foot- 
ball, and  I  attribute  the  principal  one  to  the  life  and  spirit 
put  into  the  game  by  the  players. 

9.  The  King  appointed  royal  governors  to  represent  him  and 
these  were  usually  harsh  rulers,  who  made  the  colonists  give 
up  certain  rights  and  do  as  they  wanted  them  to  do,  although 
the  colonists  did  not  wish  to  do  so. 

10.  We  learned  that  it  would  take  time  to  repair  the  automobile, 
and  we  walked  to  the  nearest  village,  had  some  lunch,  and 
we  then  returned  to  the  scene  of  the  accident,  but  the  ma- 
chine had  not  yet  been  repaired,  and  we  tried  to  help  the 
driver  repair  it,  but  our  efforts  were  all  in  vain. 

11.  Near  the  road  is  an  old  house  and  it  is  now  deserted  and 
covered  by  dust,  but  it  was  once  the  home  of  the  governor 
of  the  State,  who  lived  there  until  the  death  of  his  wife,  and 
who  moved  away  about  ten  years  ago. 

12.  Up  to  this  time  the  efforts  of  the  local  custodians  of  the  la\? 
to  apprehend  the  men  who  make  illicit  whiskey  near  tht 
town  have  proved  absolutely  unsuccessful,  for  they  have  not 
captured  a  single  man,  although  it  is  commonly  reported  by 
everybody  that  there  are  hundreds  of  men  engaged  in  the 
lucrative  and  profitable  business  of  making  and  selling  whis^ 
key,  beer,  brandy,  and  wines  of  every  description. 

13.  On  the  edge  of  the  road,  at  the  point  where  it  made  a  sharp 
turn  before  it  led  down  the  hill,  there  was  standing  a  coach, 
and  it  looked  black  and  very  large  in  the  white  snow.    The 
coach  was  crookedly  imbedded  in  the  snow,  and  there  were 
no  horses  attached  to  it. 

14.  I  was  walking  along  a  well-worn  and  much-used  path  which 
ran  along  a  small  creek,  just  as  the  setting  sun  was  slowly 
sinking  behind    several  clouds  over  the  western  horizon. 
The  clouds  were  tinted  a  yellow-red  by  the  rays  of  the  setting 
sun,  and  the  color  of  the  clouds  was  reflected  distinctly  in  the 
smooth  surface  of  the  water,  turning  its  color  to  a  very  light 
pink.    The  trees  were  bare,  as  the  leaves  with  their  red  color 


VAGUENESS  61 

had  fallen  to  the  ground  to  protect  it  from  the  approaching 
winter  which  was  near  at  hand. 

5.  Vagueness.  The  principles  of  composition  that  we 
have  considered  should  lead,  if  faithfully  followed,  to  skill- 
ful writing,  writing  that  is  clear,  emphatic,  and  varied  — 
above  all,  clear.  The  principles  of  subordination,  parallel- 
ism, emphasis,  and  economy  call  for  clear  thinking,  and 
clear  thinking,  as  we  know,  almost  inevitably  means  clear 
writing.  Conversely,  it  follows  that  if  writing  is  vague, 
the  thinking  that  preceded  the  writing  was  probably 
vague. 

Yet  there  are  certain  syntactical  pitfalls  that  waylay 
the  writing  of  even  a  clear  thinker,  errors  in  sentence  struc- 
ture that  human  flesh  —  including  such  authors  as  Haw- 
thorne and  Thackeray  —  is  heir  to.  It  is  the  business  of 
every  writer  to  understand  the  nature  of  these  errors  and 
the  readiest  modes  of  correction. 

Reference.  When  we  say,  "The  French  nation  is  the 
most  admirable  in  the  world.  They  are  the  standard- 
bearers  of  civilization."  —  we  are  reproducing  in  expres- 
sion an  error  in  our  thinking.  They  lacks  an  antecedent 
because  we  committed  the  error  of  supposing  that  we  were 
talking  about  the  French  or  the  French  people.  We  didn't 
know  what  we  were  talking  about!  The  sentences  should 
have  read: 

The  French  nation  is  the  most  admirable  in  the  world.  It  is 
the  standard-bearer  of  civilization. 

The  same  error  is  involved  in  the  case  of  the  dangling 
participle.  We  should  not  write: 

Having  eaten  our  lunch,  the  river  trip  was  resumed. 
Grammatically,  the  participial  phrase  must  modify  the 


62  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

subject  of  the  governing  clause;  grammatically  speaking, 
therefore,  we  are  saying  that  the  river  trip  ate  our  lunch! 
That  was  not  in  our  minds,  of  course  —  then  it  should  not 
be  in  our  sentence.  If  we  ate  the  lunch,  we  should  be  the 
subject  of  the  governing  clause: 

Having  eaten  our  lunch,  we  resumed  the  river  trip. 

The  participle  Having  eaten,  instead  of  dangling  in  the  air 
with  nothing  to  attach  itself  to  logically,  is  now  securely 
fastened  to  its  grammatical  and  logical  master-word  we. 

Precisely  the  same  thing  happens  in  the  case  of  the 
dangling  elliptical  clause,  —  a  clause  that  is  termed  ellipti- 
cal because  its  subject  and  predicate  are  omitted,  and 
dangling  because  it  is  not  properly  fastened  to  the  govern- 
ing clause.  For  example: 

When  four  years  old,  my  grandmother  died. 

Since  When  four  years  old  is  grammatically  dependent  on 
the  subject  of  the  governing  clause,  grandmother,  we  have 
unwittingly  said  that  our  grandparent  died  at  the  ripe  old 
age  of  four.  The  simplest  remedy  in  this  case  is  to  restore 
the  omitted  subject  and  predicate  of  the  elliptical  clause: 

When  I  was  four  years  old,  my  grandmother  died. 

EXERCISE  XVIII 

Correct  the  faulty  reference  in  the  following  sentences: 

1.  Kultur  is  a  word  used  in  Germany  to  indicate  their  ideal. 

2.  When  six  years  old,  my  father  took  me  to  school. 

3.  Upon  opening  the  door  the  door  mat  tripped  me  up. 

4.  The  molten  iron  is  very  heavy,  causing  it  to  sink  to  the 
bottom. 

5.  While  before  the  fireplace,  the  butler  came  in  and  handed 
him  a  letter. 


VAGUENESS  63 

6.  After  seeing  that  the  tires  are  in  order,  the  engine  was 
started  by  him. 

7.  Turning  a  bend  in  the  road,  the  little  town  could  be  plainly 
seen. 

8.  Never  having  seen  the  house,  it  was  impossible  for  me  to 
describe  it. 

9.  Although  very  young,  my  grandfather  asked  me  to  go  with 
him. 

10.  Entering  the  building,  it  was  obvious  that  some  one  had 
been  there  recently. 

11.  Being  in  a  test-tube,  I  could  watch  the  crystals  grow. 

12.  Looking  back  upon  the  events  of  this  night,  they  now  appear 
strangely  unreal. 

13.  Upon  questioning  my  sister,  she  showed  a  decided  reluctance 
to  explain. 

14.  While  very  young  and  tender,  he  carefully  watched  the 
plants  grow. 

15.  The  cover  is  put  on  again  so  that  the  contents  may  not  be 
lost  while  carrying  it  to  the  vault. 

16.  After  setting  the  vase  in  this  insecure  position,  it  naturally 
tumbled  over  when  the  door  was  slammed. 

17.  Sitting  for  three  hours  in  the  sun,  my  clothes  became  dry 
enough  to  walk  home. 

1 8.  Hated  and  persecuted  by  the  people  of  his  time,  one  cannot 
help  sympathizing  with  Shylock. 

19.  Although  blest  with  a  loving  wife,  she  was  too  ambitious 
for  the  welfare  of  her  husband. 

20.  Let  every  American  uphold  the  President  and  do  their  part 
in  winning  this  war. 

21.  They  had  such  different  customs  from  those  we  now  have 
that  it  is  a  curiosity. 

22.  On  entering  the  porch,  the  eye  is  struck  with  the  appearance 
of  ease  and  comfort  that  characterized  it. 

Point  of  view.     When  you  are  looking  out  over  a  land- 
scape, you  see  everything  that  is  visible  from  where  you  are 


64  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

standing,  and  nothing  else.  You  do  not  see  the  other  side 
of  the  barn,  any  more  than  you  see  the  other  side  of  the 
moon  coming  up  over  the  barn.  If  you  describe  what  you 
cannot  see,  you  are  false,  false  to  your  senses  and  to  your 
mind.  So  when  you  write: 

In  order  to  make  the.  furnace  burn  harder,  the  lower  door 
must  be  opened. 

—  you  commit  the  same  blunder,  by  regarding  your 
thought  from  the  point  of  view,  first,  of  a  person,  and 
secondly,  of  the  door  of  the  furnace.  Sentences,  of  course, 
should  be  consistent  in  point  of  view,  as  our  minds  are 
when  they  are  operating  efficiently.  We  should  adopt,  in 
the  sentence  above,  either  the  point  of  view  of  the  person, 
or  the  point  of  view  of  the  object: 

In  order  to  make  the  furnace  burn  harder,  you  must  open  the 
lower  door. 

In  order  that  the  furnace  may  be  made  to  burn  harder,  the 
lower  door  must  be  opened. 

In  the  writing  of  narration,  uniformity  in  point  of  view 
is  often  violated  by  the  abuse  of  the  historical  present 
tense,  by  the  purposeless  shifting  from  the  past  tense  to  the 
present.  The  historical  present  is  a  legitimate  device  when 
used  by  a  skillful  writer  in  a  moment  of  high  excitement 
during  the  narration  of  an  event;  though  writing  in  the  past 
tense,  he  is  emotionally  carried  away  by  the  reality  of  the 
action  and  spontaneously  resorts,  for  the  moment,  to  the 
present  tense.  On  the  basis  of  our  conception  that  what  is  in 
the  mind  should  determine  what  is  written  on  paper,  this 
is  as  it  should  be.  Too  often,  however,  an  unskillful  writer, 
instead  of  looking  to  his  thought  and  feeling,  looks  to  the 
practiced  writer  for  a  hint  to  help  him  in  writing  cleverly, 
and  in  cold  blood  proceeds  to  confuse  his  tenses: 


VAGUENESS  65 

The  flames  were  mounting  higher  and  higher,  and  we  began  to 
wonder  whether  they  would  reach  the  window  where  she  stood. 
A  fireman  runs  up  with  a  shout,  but  she  did  not  hear  him,  and 
just  stood  there.  She  stands  for  a  long  time,  as  if  .dazed,  and 
then  was  hidden  by  the  smoke.  What  shall  we  do? 

The  apprentice  at  the  art  of  writing  will  do  well  to  avoid 
this  means  of  securing  vividness  altogether;  he  will  be  more 
likely  to  attain  vividness  if  he  uses  one  tense,  either  past 
or  present,  throughout. 

EXERCISE  XIX 

Make  the  point  of  view  in  the  following  sentences  con- 
sistent. 

1.  Girls  fed  the  sheets  in  separately  and  they  came  out  smooth 
and  glossy  at  the  other  end  of  the  machine. 

2.  To  repair  the  furnace,  it  must  be  taken  apart. 

3.  We  walked  through  the  older  parts  of  the  city,  where  many 
quaint  old  sights  were  seen. 

4.  I  told  him  to  come  as  soon  as  he  can. 

5.  To  have  a  fast  game  of  baseball,  the  balls  should  be  new. 

6.  As  I  grew  older,  it  was  still  my  desire  to  make  a  success,  and 
I  have  not  yet  changed. 

7.  I  told  him  that  I  haven't  read  the  book. 

8.  To  avoid  notoriety,  the  name  of  the  hero  is  not  given. 

9.  They  retained  possession  of  these  lands  until  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War  in  1870,  and  they  were  again  wrested  from 
them  by  the  Germans. 

10.  In  order  to  study  actual  conditions  of  modern  warfare,  real 

trenches  are  being  dug  at  our  college. 
n.  We  went  through  the  mechanical  department,  where  many 

wonderful  machines  were  seen. 

12.  We  all  put  our  shoulders  to  the  wheel  and  soon  the  wagon 
was  pulled  out  of  the  ditch. 

13.  In  order  to  learn  scientific  farming,  chemistry  must  hs 
studied. 


66  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

14.  These  buildings  are  very  old  and  students  have  been  living 
in  them  for  many  years. 

15.  The  Puritans  hated  bear-baiting,  not  because  it  gave  pain  to 
the  bear,  but  because  the  spectators  were  given  pleasure. 

16.  He  had  talent,  but  it  did  not  seem  to  do  him  much  good. 

17.  The  Monroe  Doctrine  gave  great  encouragement  to  the 
young  republics  of  South  America,  and  they  were  enabled  to 
develop  their  own  systems  of  government. 

1 8.  To  secure  these  ends,  it  is  necessary  for  the  American  people 
to  develop  more  friendly  relations  with  their  neighbors. 

Transition.  Good  writing  is  the  expression  of  connected 
thinking.  Stray  thoughts  set  down  one  after  another 
without  relation  could  not  be  regarded  as  good  writing, 
unless  the  thoughts  were  so  fresh  and  penetrating,  and  so 
admirably  phrased,  that  the  reader  would  want  to  preserve 
them.  Most  of  Emerson's  essays  are  made  up  of  such 
thoughts,  first  recorded  in  a  notebook,  then  strung  together 
on  a  fragile  thread  of  thought  and  published  as  an  essay: 
yet  Emerson  is  called  by  Matthew  Arnold  the  foremost 
prose  writer  of  the  nineteenth  century.  But  most  men, 
both  greater  and  smaller  than  Emerson,  think  more  con- 
nectedly, more  logically,  as  we  say,  and  are  therefore  bound 
to  write  otherwise.  Connected  thinking  calls  for  con- 
nected writing.  It  is  not  enough  that  the  thought  should 
move  logically  from  sentence  to  sentence;  there  must  be  an 
equivalent  connection  in  the  phrasing.  It  is  logical  to  say: 

I  am  glad  to  see  the  President  powerful.  He  has  too  much 
power. 

But  the  signs  of  connected  thinking  are  lacking.  We 
should  say: 

I  am  glad  to  see  the  President  powerful.  But  he  has  too  much 
power. 

I  am  glad  to  see  the  President  powerful,  but  he  has  too  much 
power. 


VAGUENESS  67 

The  first  statement  may  be  called  positive,  the  second 
negative,  subtracting  something  from  the  first,  somewhat 
as  4— 1=3.  Omission  of  a  but,  which  often  serves  as  the 
minus  sign  in  writing,  may,  of  course,  be  highly  confusing. 
We  have  at  our  disposal  at  least  three  types  of  connec- 
tives: we  may  repeat  a  word,  generally  a  noun;  we  may  use 
a  pronoun  or  other  reference  word,  such  as  they  or  then;  or 
we  may  use  a  conjunction  (see  pp.  12-13,  32-33)  or  a  con- 
junctive adverb  (see  p.  13).  A  good  writer,  it  is  sometimes 
said,  may  be  recognized  most  readily  by  the  skill  with  which 
he  employs  connectives  —  the  frequency  and  the  discrimi- 
nation with  which  he  uses  them.  One  could  not  find  a 
better  receipt  for  avoiding  vagueness  than  this:  if  possible, 
link  every  sentence  with  the  preceding  sentence  or  sentences. 
Note  the  connectives  in  the  following  passage  (those  link- 
ing sentences  have  been  printed  in  capital  letters,  those 
linking  parts  of  sentences  in  italics) : 

On  passing  from  a  country  in  which  free  institutions  are  estab- 
lished to  one  where  they  do  not  exist,  the  traveller  is  struck  by 
the  change;  in  the  former  all  is  bustle  and  activity,  in  the  latter 
everything  is  calm  and  motionless.  In  THE  ONE,  melioration 
and  progress  are  the  general  topics  of  inquiry;  in  THE  OTHER, 
it  seems  as  if  the  community  only  aspired  to  repose  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  advantages  which  it  has  acquired.  NEVERTHE- 
LESS, the  country  which  exerts  itself  so  strenuously  to  promote 
its  welfare  is  generally  more  wealthy  and  more  prosperous  than 
that  which  appears  to  be  so  contented  with  its  lot;  and  when  we 
compare  them  together,  we  can  scarcely  conceive  how  so  many 
wants  are  daily  felt  in  the  former,  while  so  few  seem  to  occur  in  the 
latter. 

If  THIS  remark  is  applicable  to  those  free  countries  in  which 
monarchical  and  aristocratic  institutions  subsist,  it  is  still  more 
striking  with  regard  to  democratic  republics.  In  THESE  States 
it  is  not  only  a  portion  of  the  people  which  is  busied  with  the 


68  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

melioration  of  its  social  condition,  but  the  whole  community  is 
engaged  in  the  task;  and  it  is  not  the  exigencies  and  the  conven- 
ience of  a  single  class  for  which  a  provision  is  to  be  made,  but  the 
exigencies  and  the  convenience  of  all  ranks  of  life.  (Tocqueville.) 

EXERCISE  XX 

A.  Copy  the  paragraph  on  page  79  beginning,  "Now 
there  are  some  clear  objects  for  choice  .  .  ."  ;  single  under- 
line the  links  within  the  sentence  and  double  underline  the 
links  between  sentences. 

B.  List  all  the  connectives  that  occur  in  a  theme  or  two 
that  you  have  written,  and  then  list  the  connectives  in  a 
passage  of  the  same  length  from  Burke  or  Arnold. 

C.  Choose  from  the  list  on  pages  32-33  ten  connectives 
that  you  rarely  or  never  use,  and  write  a  passage,  or  sev- 
eral passages,  in  which  you  use  them  discriminately. 

D.  Clip  from  a  newspaper  an  editorial  in  which  connec- 
tives are  used  with  skill.     Underline  the  connectives. 

E.  Write  a  theme  of  150  words  —  preferably  a  comment 
—  in  which  each  sentence  is  linked  with  the  preceding  sen- 
tence or  sentences. 

F.  Supply  connectives  in  the  following  passage: 

The  difference  between  popular  and  learned  words  may  be 
easily  seen  in  a  few  examples.     We  may  describe  a  girl  as  "  lively" 

or  as  "vivacious."     In  the case,  we  are  using  a  native 

English  formation  from  the  familiar  noun  life ,  we  are 

using  a  Latin  derivative  which  has  precisely meaning. 

the  atmosphere  of  the  two  words  is  quite  different.     No 

one  ever  got  the  adjective  lively  out  of  a  book is  part 

of  everybody's  vocabulary.  We  cannot  remember  a  time  when 
we  did  not  know  it,  and  we  feel  sure  that  we  learned  it  long  before 
jve  were  able  to  read ,  we  must  have  passed  several 


EXERCISING  IN  SENTENCE  STRUCTURE    69 

years  of  our  lives  before  learning  the  word  vivacious.  We  may 
even  remember  the  first  time  that  we  saw  it  in  print  or  heard  it 
from  some  grown-up  friend  who  was  talking  over  our  childish 

heads lively vivacious   are    good  English 

words, lively  is  "popular"  and  vivacious  is  "  learned." 

G.  Study  the  effect  of  repetition  in  the  paragraph  on 
page  8 1  beginning:  "Not  that  your  great  numbers." 

EXERCISE  XXI 

A  General  Exercise  in  Sentence  Structure 
Discuss  the  effectiveness  of  the  following  sentences: 

1.  The  writer  who  is  unusually  fluent  should  take  warning  from 
the  instructions  which  accompany  his  fountain-pen:  When 
this  pen  flows  too  freely  it  is  a  sign  that  it  is  nearly  empty 
and  should  be  filled.     (Crothers.} 

2.  To  ascertain  and  communicate  facts  is  the  object  of  science; 
to  quicken  our  life  into  a  higher  consciousness  through  the 
feelings  is  the  function  of  art.     (Dozuden.) 

3.  Talent  is  that  which  is  in  a  man's  power;  genius  is  that  in 
whose  power  a  man  is.     (Lowell.} 

4.  All  democrats   object    to  men   being  disqualified  by  the 
accident  of  birth;  tradition  objects  to  their  being  disquali- 
fied by  the  accident  of  death.      (Chesterton.} 

5.  Sculpture  is  particularly  good  for  the  mind:  there  is  a  height 
and  divine  stillness  about  it  which  preaches  peace  to  our 
stormy  passions.     (Tennyson.} 

6.  No  more  firing  was  heard  at  Brussels  —  the  pursuit  rolled 
miles  away.    Darkness  came  down  on  the  field  and  city:  and 
Amelia  was  praying  for  George,  who  was  lying  on  his  face, 
dead,  with  a  bullet  through  his  heart.     (Thackeray.} 

7.  To  make  the  common  marvellous,  as  if  it  were  a  revelation, 
is  the  test  of  genius.     (Lowell.} 

8.  He  will  find  one  English  book  and  one  only,  where,  as  in  the 


70  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

Iliad  itself,  perfect  plainness  of  speech  is  allied  with  perfect 
nobleness;  and  that  book  is  the  Bible.  (Arnold.} 
9.  Let  us  consider,  too,  how  differently  young  and  old  are  af- 
fected by  the  words  of  some  classic  author,  such  as  Homer  or 
Horace.  Passages,  which  to  a  boy  are  but  rhetorical  com- 
monplaces, neither  better  nor  worse  than  a  hundred  others 
which  any  clever  writer  might  supply,  which  he  gets  by  heart 
and  thinks  very  fine,  and  imitates,  as  he  thinks,  successfully, 
in  his  own  flowing  versification,  at  length  come  home  to  him, 
when  long  years  have  passed,  and  he  has  had  experience  of 
life,  and  pierce  him  as  if  he  had  never  before  known  them, 
with  their  sad  earnestness  and  vivid  exactness.  Then  he 
comes  to  understand  how  it  is  that  lines,  the  birth  of  some 
chance  morning  or  evening  at  an  Ionian  festival,  or  among 
the  Sabine  hills,  have  lasted  generation  after  generation,  for 
thousands  of  years,  with  a  power  over  the  mind,  and  a 
charm,  which  the  current  literature  of  his  own  day,  with  all 
its  obvious  advantages,  is  utterly  unable  to  rival.  (Newman.) 
10.  Effectiveness  of  assertion  is  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  style. 
He  who  has  nothing  to  assert  has  no  style  and  can  have  none: 
he  who  has  something  to  assert  will  go  as  far  in  power  of 
style  as  its  momentousness  and  his  conviction  will  carry  him. 
Disprove  his  assertion  after  it  is  made,  yet  his  style  remains. 
Darwin  has  no  more  destroyed  the  style  of  Job  nor  of  Handel 
than  Martin  Luther  destroyed  the  style  of  Giotto.  All  the 
assertions  get  disproved  sooner  or  later;  and  so  we  find 
the  world  full  of  a  magnificent  debris  of  artistic  fossils,  with 
the  matter-of-fact  credibility  gone  clean  out  of  them,  but  the 
form  still  splendid.  And  that  is  why  the  old  masters  play 
the  deuce  with  our  mere  susceptibles.  Your  Royal  Academi- 
cian thinks  he  can  get  the  style  of  Giotto  (without  Giotto's 
beliefs),  and  correct  his  perspective  into  the  bargain.  Your 
man  of  letters  thinks  he  can  get  Bunyan's  or  Shakespear's 
style  without  Bunyan's  conviction  or  Shakespear's  appre- 
hension, especially  if  he  takes  care  not  to  split  his  infinitive. 
(Shaw.) 


EXERCISING  IN  SENTENCE  STRUCTURE    71 

11.  All  in  all,  the  style  of  an  author  is  the  true  image  of  his  mind. 
He  who  would  write  clearly,  ought  first  to  think  clearly,  and 
whoever  would  have  a  grand  style  must  first  have  a  grand 
character.     (Goethe.} 

12.  We  are  in  such  haste  to  be  doing,  to  be  writing,  to  be  gather- 
ing gear,  to  make  our  voices  audible  a  moment  in  the  deri- 
sive silence  of  eternity,  that  we  forget  that  one  thing,  of 
which  these  are  but  the  parts  —  namely,  to  live.    (Stevenson.} 

13.  When  I  look  upon  the  tombs  of  the  great,  every  emotion  of 
envy  dies  in  me;  when  Tread  the  epitaphs  of  the  beautiful, 
every  inordinate  desire  goes  out;  when  I  meet  with  the  grief 
of  parents  upon  a  tombstone,  my  heart  melts  with  compas- 
sion; when  I  see  the  tomb  of  the  parents  themselves,  I  con- 
sider the  vanity  of  grieving  for  those  whom  we  must  quickly 
follow;  when  I  see  kings  lying  by  those  who  deposed  them, 
when  I  consider  rival  wits  placed  side  by  side,  or  the  holy 
men  that  divided  the  world  with  their  contests  and  disputes, 
I  reflect  with  sorrow  and  astonishment  on  the  little  competi- 
tions, factions,  and  debates  of  mankind.     (Addison.} 

14.  As  the  eye,  in  surveying  a  Gothic  building,  is  distracted  by 
the  multiplicity  of  ornaments,  and  loses  the  whole  by  a  min- 
ute attention  to  the  parts;  so  the  mind,  in  perusing  a  work 
overstocked  with  wit,  is  fatigued  and  disgusted  with  the 
constant  endeavor  to  shine  and  surprise.     (Hume.} 

15.  Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things  are  honest, 
whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good 
report;  if  there  be  any  virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think  on  these  things.     (St.  Paul.} 

16.  As  Wordsworth's  poetry  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  most  im- 
portant work  done  in  verse,  in  our  language,  during  the  pres- 
ent century,  so  Emerson's  Essays  are,  I  think,  the  most  im- 
portant work  done  in  prose.     (Arnold.} 

17.  After  the  fever  of  life,  after  wearinesses  and  sicknesses, 
fightings  and  despondings,  languor  and  fretfulness,  strug- 
gling and  succeeding;  after  all  the  changes  and  chances  of 


72  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

this  troubled  state,  —  at  length  comes  death,  at  length  the 
white  throne  of  God,  at  length  the  beatific  vision.   (Arnold.} 

1 8.  That  only  is  true  enlargement  of  mind  which  is  the  power  of 
viewing  many  things  at  once  as  one  whole,  of  referring  them 
severally  to  their  true  place  in  the  universal  system,  of  un- 
derstanding their  respective  values,  and  determining  their 
mutual  dependence.     (Newman.} 

19.  Science  is,  I  believe,  nothing  but  trained  and  organized  com- 
mon sense,  differing  from  the  latter  only  as  a  veteran  may 
differ  from  a  raw  recruit;  and  its  methods  differ  from  those  of 
common  sense  only  so  far  as  the  guardsman's  cut  and  thrust 
differ  from  the  manner  in  which  a  savage  wields  his  club. 
(Huxley.} 

20.  It  is  plain  that  the  appreciation  of  literature  is  a  continuing 
process,  and  depends  on  increase  of  experience  in  the  per- 
sonal life,  and  on  growth  of  the  imaginative  and  sympathetic 
powers.  ...  It  is  a  measure  of  growth  because  it  proceeds 
from  growth;  to  love  the  poets  is  a  certificate  of  manhood,  a 
proof  that  one  has  put  forth  the  powers  and  appropriated 
the  means  of  life,  that  one  is  on  the  way  at  least  to  be  human- 
ized.    (G.  E.  Woodberry.} 

21.  The  reader  takes  so  much  of  the  book  as  has  affinity  with 
him,  and  it  is  as  if  the  book  were  re-written  in  his  mind;  in- 
deed, it  often  happens  that  the  book  which  was  written  is 
not  the  book  which  is  read,  so  great  is  the  reader's  share  in 
that  blending  of  two  souls  which  is  the  act  of  reading. 
(Woodberry.} 

22.  Not  in  an  obscure  corner,  not  in  a  feudal  Europe,  not  in  an 
antiquated  appanage  where  no  onward  step  can  be  taken 
without  rebellion,  is  this  seed  of  benevolence  laid  in  the  fur- 
row, with  tears  of  hope;  but  in  this  broad  America  of  God 
and  man,  where  the  forest  is  only  now  falling,  or  yet  to  fall, 
and  the  green  earth  opened  to  the  inundation  of  emigrant 
men  from  all  quarters  of  oppression  and  guilt;  here,  where 
not  a  family,  not  a  few  men,  but  mankind,  shall  say  what 
shall  be;  here,  we  ask,  Shall  it  be  War,  or  shall  it  be  Peace? 
(Emerson.} 


EXERCISING  IN  SENTENCE  STRUCTURE    73 

23.  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  nearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and 
whither  it  goeth;  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit. 
(St.  John.) 

24.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  great  task  re- 
maining before  us,  —  that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take 
increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the 
last  full  measure   of  devotion  —  that  we  here  highly  re- 
solve that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain  —  that  this 
nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom  —  and 
that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people, 
shall  not  perish  from  the  earth.    (Lincoln.) 

25.  Whoever  wishes  to  attain  an  English  style,  familiar  but  not 
coarse,  and  elegant  but  not  ostentatious,  must  give  his  days 
and  nights  to  the  volumes  of  Addison.     (Johnson.) 

26.  Set  me  as  a  seal  upon  thy  heart,  as  a  seal  upon  xthine  arm: 
for  love  is  strong  as  death;  jealousy  is  cruel  as  the  grave;  the 
coals  thereof  are  coals  of  fire,  which  hath  a  most  vehement 
flame. 

Many  waters  cannot  quench  love,  neither  can  the  floods 
drown  it;  if  a  man  give  all  the  substance  of  his  house  for  love, 
it  would  utterly  be  contemned.  (Solomon.) 

27.  Produce!     Produce!     Were  it  but  the  pitifullest  infinites- 
imal fraction  of  a   Product,  produce  it,   in  God's  name! 
'Tis  the  utmost  thou  hast  in  thee:  out  with  it,  then.     Up,  up! 
Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  dp  it  with  thy  whole 
might.     Work  while  it  is  called  Today;  for  the  Night  com- 
eth, wherein  no  man  can  work.      (Carlyle.) 

28.  And  although  the  last  few  eventful  years,  fraught  with 
change  to  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  have  been  more  fatal 
in  their  influence  on  Venice  than  the  five  hundred  that  pre- 
ceded them;  though  the  noble  landscape  of  approach  to  her 
can  now  be  seen  no  more,  or  seen  only  by  a  glance,  as  the 
engine  slackens  its  rushing  on  the  iron  line;  and  though 
many  of  her  palaces  are  forever  defaced,  and  many  in  dese- 
crated ruins,  there  is  still  so  much  of  magic  in  her  aspect, 


74  SENTENCES  AND  THINKING 

that  the  hurried  traveller,  who  must  leave  her  before  the 
wonder  of  that  first  aspect  has  been  worn  away,  may  still  be 
led  to  forget  the  humility  of  her  origin,  and  to  shut  his  eyes 
to  the  depth  of  her  desolation.  (Ruskin.) 

29.  To  still  sit  and  contemplate,  —  to  remember  the  faces  of 
women  without  desire,  to  be  pleased  by  the  great  deeds  of  men 
without  envy,  to  be  everything  and  everywhere  in  sympathy, 
and  yet  content  to  remain  where  and  what  you  are  —  is  not 
this  to  know  both  wisdom  and  virtue,  and  to  dwell  with 
happiness?    (Stevenson.} 

30.  From  thence  he  could  discern,  at  a  single  glance,  how  ardu- 
ous was  the  task  before  him.     Piles  of  lofty  cliffs  rose  with 
sheer  ascent  on  the  northern  border  of  the  river;  and  from 
their  summits  the  boasted  citadel  of  Canada  looked  down  in 
proud  security,  with  its  churches  and  convents  of  stone,  its 
ramparts,  bastions,  and  batteries;  while  over  them  all,  from 
the  brink  of  the  precipice,  towered  the  massive  walls  of  the 
Castle  of  St.  Louis.     (Parkman.) 

31.  Scarcely  any  man,  however  sagacious,  would  have  thought  it 
possible  that  a  trading  company,  separated  from  India  by 
fifteen  thousand  miles  of  sea,  and  possessing  in  India  only  a 
few  acres  for  purposes  of  commerce,  would,  in  less  than  a 
hundred  years,  spread  its  empire  from  Cape  Comorin  to  the 
eternal  snows  of  the  Himalayas;  would  compel  Mahratta  and 
Mahommedan  to  forget  their  mutual  feuds  in  common  sub- 
jection; would  tame  down  even  those  wild  races  which  had 
resisted  the  most  powerful  of  the  Moguls;  and  having  united 
under  its  laws  a  hundred  million  of  subjects,  would  carry  its 
victorious  arms  far  to  the  east  of  the  Burrampooter,  and  far 
to  the  west  of  the  Hydaspes,  dictate  terms  of  peace  at  the 
gates  of  Ava,  and  seat  its  vassal  on  the  throne  of  Candahar. 
(Macaulay.) 

32.  Manoeuvres  of  a  most  extraordinary  kind  were  going  on  in  the 
vast  firmamental  hollows  overhead.    The  lightning  was  now 
the  color  of  silver,  and  gleamed  in  the  heavens  like  a  mailed 
army.    Rumbles  became  rattles.    Gabriel  from  his  elevated 


EXERCISING  IN  SENTENCE  STRUCTURE    75 

position  could  see  over  the  landscape  for  at  least  half  a 
dozen  miles  in  front.  Every  hedge,  bush,  and  tree  was  dis- 
tinct as  in  a  line  engraving.  In  a  paddock  in  the  same  direc- 
tion was  a  herd  of  heifers,  and  the  forms  of  these  were  visible 
at  this  moment  in  the  act  of  galloping  about  in  the  wildest  and 
maddest  confusion,  flinging  their  heels  and  tails  high  into  the 
air,  their  heads  to  tarth.  A  poplar  in  the  immediate  fore- 
ground was  like  an  ink-stroke  on  burnished  tin.  Then  the 
picture  vanished,  leaving  a  darkness  so  intense  that  Gabriel 
worked  entirely  by  feeling  with  his  hands.  (Hardy.) 

33.  Up  started  the  whole  forest  in  violet  fire.     He  saw  the  coun- 
try at  the  foot  of  the  hills  to  the  bounding  Rhine  gleam, 
quiver,  extinguished.      Then  there  were  pauses;  and  the 
lightning  seemed  as  the  eye  of  heaven,  and  the  thunder  as 
the  tongue  of  heaven,  each  alternately  addressing  him;  filling 
him  with  awful  rapture.    Alone  there  —  sole  human  creature 
among  the  grandeurs  and  mysteries  of  storm  —  he  felt  the 
representative  of  his  kind,  and  his  spirits  rose,  and  marched, 
and  exulted,  let  it  be  glory,  let  it  be  ruin!     Lower  down  the 
lightened  abysses  of  air  rolled  the  wrathful  crash:  then  white 
thrusts  of  light  were  darted  from  the  sky,  and  great  curving 
ferns,  seen  steadfast  in  pallor  a  second,  were  supernaturally 
agitated,  and  vanished.     Then  a  shrill  song  roused  in  the 
leaves  and  the  herbage.     Prolonged  and  louder  it  sounded, 
as  deeper  and  heavier  the  deluge  pressed.     A  mighty  force 
of  water  satisfied  the  desire  of  the  earth.     (Meredith.) 

34.  What  we  seek  is  the  reign  of  law,  based  upon  the  consent 
of  the  governed  and   sustained  by  the  organized  opinion 
of  mankind.      (Wilson.) 

35.  As  a  university  it  is  a  living  unity,  an  organism  at  the  heart 
of  the  living  democratic  state,  interpreting  its  life,  not  by 
parts,  nor  by  a  summary  of  parts,  but  wholly,  —  fusing  the 
functions  of  brain  and  heart  and  hand  under  the  power  of 
the  immortal  spirit  of  democracy  as  it  moves  in  present 
American  life  to  the  complete  realization  of  what  men  really 
want.     (E.  K.  Graham.) 


CHAPTER  III 
SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

THE  most  profitable  practice  in  the  principles  of  subor- 
dination, parallelism,  and  emphasis  will  be  found  in  the 
writing  of  summary  sentences.  The  summary  sentence,  as 
the  term  is  here  used,  is  a  sentence  which  expresses  all  the 
essential  thought  of  a  paragraph.  Such  a  sentence  is  not 
ordinarily  used  in  actual  writing,  though  it  sometimes  oc- 
curs at  the  end  of  a  long  or  difficult  passage,  and  though  the 
topic  sentence  is  sometimes  a  virtual  summary  sentence. 

Generally,  the  topic  sentence  is  inadequate  as  a  sum- 
mary of  the  thought  of  the  paragraph,  for  the  reason  that 
it  merely  points  to  the  subject  treated,  without  indicating 
precisely  how  it  is  treated.  It  is  often  no  more  than  the 
label  on  a  bottle;  the  summary  sentence,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  always  a  distillation  of  the  contents. 

How  should  one  set  about  the  writing  of  a  summary  sen- 
tence? Given  a  paragraph,  more  or  less  misunderstood  by 
a  hasty  reader;  wanted,  a  single,  deft  sentence  that  shall 
embody  the  thought  of  the  paragraph:  obviously,  the  thing 
cannot  be  done  in  a  moment.  Although  the  practiced 
writer  of  summary  sentences  may  sometimes  compose  his 
sentence  by  merely  reflecting  on  the  substance  of  the  para- 
graph, the  novice  will  probably  find  it  necessary  to  go 
through  a  rather  exacting  analysis.  A  short  paragraph 
from  the  War  Message  will  afford  an  example. 

We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people.  We  have  no 
feeling  toward  them  but  one  of  sympathy  and  friendship.  It  was 
not  upon  their  impulse  that  their  Government  acted  in  entering 


THE  TOPIC  SENTENCE  77 

this  war.  It  was  not  with  their  previous  knowledge  or  approval. 
It  was  a  war  determined  upon  as  wars  used  to  be  determined  upon 
in  the  old,  unhappy  days,  when  peoples  were  nowhere  consulted 
by  their  rulers  and  wars  were  provoked  and  waged  in  the  interest 
of  dynasties  or  of  little  groups  of  ambitious  men  who  were  accus- 
tomed to  use  their  fellowmen  as  pawns  and  tools. 

1.  What  does  the  paragraph  mean?     It  goes  without 
saying  that  one  must  know  exactly  what  the  thought  is 
before  one  is  in  a  position  to  express  it  in  a  sentence.     The 
paragraph  above  happens  to  be  a  very  simple  one,  so  that 
its  meaning  will  be  clear  on  a  second  reading  if  it  is  not 
clear  on  the  first.    Often,  however,  certain  difficulties  must 
be  overcome:  (a)  unusual  words,  (b)  words  used  in  unusual 
senses,  (c)  tangled  or  obscure  sentences,  (d)  allusions.     A 
good  dictionary  is  an  indispensable  part  of  our  equipment. 

2.  What  is  the  topic  sentence?    Now  that  we  know  what 
the  paragraph  means,  we  are  prepared  to  begin  to  express 
its  meaning.     Let  us  choose,  as  a  convenient  skeleton  for 
our  summary  sentence,  the  topic  sentence.     If  the  topic 
sentence  is  found  to  express  all  the  important  thought  of 
the  paragraph,  we  shall  need  to  modify  it  very  little;  but 
ordinarily  it  will  serve  only  as  a  starting-point.     The  topic 
sentence  in  our  paragraph  is  the  first  sentence: 

We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people. 

3.  What  additions  to  and  subtractions  from  the  topic 
sentence  are  to  be  made?    We  can  see  at  a  glance  that  our 
topic  sentence  does  not  express  all  the  important  meaning 
of  the  paragraph.     "We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German 
people"   -  is  that  all  that  President  Wilson  is  saying?     By 
no  means.    After  repeating  the  idea  in  the  second  sentence, 
he  goes  on,  in  the  third  and  succeeding  sentences,  to  explain 
why  we  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people.     The 


78  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

topic  sentence  indicates  what  he  is  talking  about,  but  what 
he  is  saying  is  another  matter.  The  fact  that  the  war  was 
begun  without  the  German  people's  knowledge  or  approval 
must  be  got  into  our  summary  sentence.  It  must  be 
added;  apparently  there  is  nothing,  in  this  case,  to  sub- 
tract. Let  us  add  it  then: 

We  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German  people,  and  this  is  the 
case  because  the  German  Government  began  the  war  without 
their  knowledge  or  approval. 

4.  Can  the  sentence  be  made  periodic?     Since  one 
thought  in  the  paragraph  is  likely  to  be  of  more  importance 
than  all  other  thoughts,  we  shall  rarely  be  able  to  accept  a 
summary  sentence  that  is  cast  in  the  mould  of  a  compound 
sentence.     We  shall  need  a  simple  or  a  complex  sentence, 
preferably  periodic  in  structure.    That  means  putting  first 
our  subordinate  matter:   "and  this  is  the  case  because" 
etc.     Reserving  our  main  clause  to  the  end,  then,  we  may 
get  some  such  result  as  this: 

Because  the  German  Government  began  the  war  without  their 
knowledge  or  approval,  we  have  no  quarrel  with  the  German 
people. 

Or,  better: 

Because  the  Government  began  the  war  without  the  knowledge 
or  approval  of  the  German  people,  with  them  we  have  no  quarrel. 

5.  Can  the  phrasing  of  the  sentence  be  condensed? 

There  is  always  danger  that  a  summary  sentence  will  be 
cumbersomely  long  and  involved.  What  we  are  seeking 
is  the  briefest,  neatest  form  compatible  with  comprehen- 
siveness. In  the  sentence  above,  no  further  condensation 
is  necessary;  several  words  have  already  been  omitted  — 
the  first  sentence  numbering  twenty-five  words,  the  last 
one  twenty-one. 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES    79 

6.  Have  we  a  connective?  Have  we  repeated  one  of  the 
pivotal  words  or  phrases  of  the  preceding  summary  sen- 
tence, or  used  a  suitable  pronoun,  or  added  a  conjunction? 
In  this  case,  the  link  is  the  word  Government,  which  would 
occur  in  a  good  summary  sentence  of  the  preceding  para- 
graph of  the  War  Message.  If  possible,  link  every  sum- 
mary sentence  to  the  preceding  summary  sentence  by  the 
use  of  some  sign  of  transition  in  the  thought.  (See,  once 
more,  the  discussion  of  transition,  pp.  66-67.) 

If  these  suggestions  are  faithfully  followed,  the  student 
will  not  only  learn  to  write  acceptable  summary  sentences, 
but  will  strengthen  his  command  of  the  principles  of  sen- 
tence and  paragraph  construction. 

EXERCISE  XXH 

Write  summary  sentences  for  the  following  paragraphs, 
taking  care  to  observe  the  six  points  treated  above: 

Now,  there  are  some  clear  objects  for  choice  here  in  college,  for 
real  choice,  for  discreet  choice.  I  will  mention  only  two.  In  the 
first  place,  choose  those  studies  —  there  is  a  great  range  of  them 
here  —  which  will,  through  your  interest  in  them,  develop  your 
working  power.  You  know  that  it  is  only  through  work  that  you 
can  achieve  anything,  either  in  college  or  in  the  world.  Choose 
those  studies  on  which  you  can  work  intensely  with  pleasure,  with 
real  satisfaction  and  happiness.  That  is  the  true  guide  to  a  wise 
choice.  Choose  that  intellectual  pursuit  which  will  develop 
within  you  the  power  to  do  enthusiastic  work,  an  internal  motive 
power,  not  an  external  compulsion.  Then,  choose  an  ennobling 
companionship.  You  will  find  out  in  five  minutes  that  this  man 
stirs  you  to  do  good,  that  man  to  evil.  Shun  the  latter;  cling  to 
the  former.  Choose  companionship  rightly;  choose  your  whole 
surroundings  so  that  they  shall  lift  you  up  and  not  drag  you  down. 
Make  these  two  choices  wisely,  and  be  faithful  in  labor,  and  you 
will  succeed  in  college  and  in  after  life.  (Charles  W.  Eliot.) 


80  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

The  entry  of  Charles  the  Second  into  Whitehall  marked  a  deep 
and  lasting  change  in  the  temper  of  the  English  people.  With  it 
modern  England  began.  The  influences  which  had  up  to  this 
time  molded  our  history,  the  theological  influence  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  monarchical  influence  of  the  new  kingship,  the  feudal 
influence  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  yet  earlier  influence  of  tradition 
and  custom,  suddenly  lost  power  over  the  minds  of  men.  From 
the  moment  of  the  Restoration  we  find  ourselves  all  at  once 
among  the  great  currents  of  thought  and  activity  which  have  gone 
on  widening  and  deepening  from  that  time  to  this.  The  England 
around  us  becomes  our  own  England,  an  England  whose  chief 
forces  are  industry  and  science,  the  love  of  popular  freedom  and 
of  law,  an  England  which  presses  steadily  forward  to  a  larger 
social  justice  and  equality,  and  which  tends  more  and  more  to 
bring  every  custom  and  tradition,  religious,  intellectual,  and  po- 
litical, to  the  test  of  pure  reason.  Between  modern  thought,  on 
some  at  least  of  its  more  important  sides,  and  the  thought  of  men 
before  the  Restoration  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed.  A  political 
thinker  in  the  present  day  would  find  it  equally  hard  to  discuss 
any  point  of  statesmanship  with  Lord  Burleigh  or  with  Oliver 
Cromwell.  He  would  find  no  point  of  contact  between  their  ideas 
of  national  life  or  national  welfare,  their  conception  of  govern- 
ment or  the  ends  of  government,  their  mode  of  regarding  economi- 
cal and  social  questions,  and  his  own.  But  no  gulf  of  this  sort 
parts  us  from  the  men  who  followed  the  Restoration.  From  that 
time  to  this,  whatever  differences  there  may  have  been  as  to 
practical  conclusions  drawn  from  them,  there  has  been  a  sub- 
stantial agreement  as  to  the  grounds  of  our  political,  our  social, 
our  intellectual  and  religious  life.  Paley  would  have  found  no 
difficulty  in  understanding  Tillotson:  Newton  and  Sir  Humphry 
Davy  could  have  talked  without  a  sense  of  severance.  There 
would  have  been  nothing  to  hinder  a  perfectly  clear  discussion 
on  government  or  law  between  John  Locke  and  Jeremy  Ben- 
tham.  (Green.) 

The  vast  scale  of  things  here,  the  extent  of  your  country,  your 
numbers,  the  rapidity  of  your  increase,  strike  the  imagination, 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES     81 

and  are  a  common  topic  for  admiring  remark.  Our  great  orator, 
Mr.  Bright,  is  never  weary  of  telling  us  how  many  acres  of  land 
you  have  at  your  disposal,  how  many  bushels  of  grain  you  pro- 
duce, how  many  millions  you  are,  how  many  more  millions  you 
will  be  presently,  and  what  a  capital  thing  this  is  for  you.  Now, 
though  I  do  not  always  agree  with  Mr.  Bright,  I  find  myself  agree- 
ing with  him  here.  I  think  your  numbers  afford  a  very  real  and 
important  ground  for  satisfaction. 

Not  that  your  great  numbers,  or  indeed  great  numbers  of  men 
anywhere,  are  likely  to  be  all  good,  or  even  to  have  the  majority 
good.  "  The  majority  are  bad,"  said  one  of  the  wise  men  of  Greece; 
but  he  was  a  pagan.  Much  to  the  same  effect,  however,  is  the 
famous  sentence  of  the  New  Testament:  "  Many  are  called,  few 
chosen."  This  appears  a  hard  saying;  frequent  are  the  en- 
deavours to  elude  it,  to  attenuate  its  severity.  But  turn  it  how 
you  will,  manipulate  it  as  you  will,  the  few,  as  Cardinal  Newman 
well  says,  can  never  mean  the  many.  Perhaps  you  will  say  that 
the  majority  is,  sometimes,  good;  that  its  impulses  are  good  gen- 
erally, and  its  action  is  good  occasionally.  Yes,  but  it  lacks  prin- 
ciple, it  lacks  persistence;  if  to-day  its  good  impulses  prevail,  they 
succumb  to-morrow;  sometimes  it  goes  right,  but  it  is  very  apt  to 
go  wrong.  Even  a  popular  orator,  or  a  popular  journalist,  will 
hardly  say  that  the  multitude  may  be  trusted  to  have  its  judg- 
ment generally  just,  and  its  action  generally  virtuous.  It  may 
be  better,  it  is  better,  that  the  body  of  the  people,  with  all  its 
faults,  should  act  for  itself,  and  control  its  own  affairs,  than  that 
it  should  be  set  aside  as  ignorant  and  incapable,  and  have  its  af- 
fairs managed  for  it  by  a  so-called  superior  class,  possessing  prop- 
erty and  intelligence.  Property  and  intelligence  cannot  be 
trusted  to  show  a  sound  majority  themselves;  the  exercise  of 
power  by  the  people  tends  to  educate  the  people.  But  still,  the 
world  being  what  it  is,  we  must  surely  expect  the  aims  and  do- 
ings of  the  majority  of  men  to  be  at  present  very  faulty,  and 
this  in  a  numerous  community  no  less  than  in  a  small  one.  So 
much  we  must  certainly,  I  think,  concede  to  the  sages  and  to 
the  saints.  (Arnold.) 


82  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

The  failure  of  the  melting  pot,  far  from  closing  the  great  Arner* 
ican  democratic  experiment,  means  that  it  has  only  just  begun. 
Whatever  American  nationalism  turns  out  to  be,  we  see  already 
that  it  will  have  a  color  richer  and  more  exciting  than  our  ideal 
has  hitherto  encompassed.  In  a  world  which  has  dreamed  of 
internationalism,  we  find  that  we  have  all  unawares  been  building 
up  the  first  international  nation.  The  voices  which  have  cried 
for  a  tight  and  jealous  nationalism  of  the  European  pattern  are 
failing.  From  that  ideal,  however  valiantly  and  disinterestedly 
it  has  been  set  for  us,  time  and  tendency  have  moved  us  further 
and  further  away.  What  we  have  achieved  has  been  rather  a 
cosmopolitan  federation  of  national  colonies,  of  foreign  cultures, 
from  whom  the  sting  of  devastating  competition  has  been  re- 
moved. America  is  already  the  world-federation  in  miniature,  the 
continent  where  for  the  first  time  in  history  has  been  achieved 
that  miracle  of  hope,  the  peaceful  living  side  by  side,  with  char- 
acter substantially  preserved,  of  the  most  heterogeneous  peoples 
under  the  sun.  Nowhere  else  has  such  contiguity  been  anything 
but  the  breeder  of  misery.  Here,  notwithstanding  our  tragic  fail- 
ures of  adjustment,  the  outlines  are  already  too  clear  not  to  give 
us  a  new  vision  and  a  new  orientation  of  the  American  mind  in 
the  world.  (Randolph  Bourne.) 

Why,  then,  do  we  hesitate  to  swell  our  words  to  meet  our  needs? 
It  is  a  nonsense  question.  There  is  no  reason.  We  are  simply 
lazy;  too  lazy  to  make  ourselves  comfortable.  We  let  our  vocab- 
ularies be  limited,  and  get  along  rawly  without  the  refinements  of 
human  intercourse,  without  refinements  in  our  own  thoughts;  for 
thoughts  are  almost  as  dependent  on  words  as  words  on  thoughts. 
For  example,  all  exasperations  we  lump  together  as  "  aggravat- 
ing," not  considering  whether  they  may  not  rather  be  displeasing, 
annoying,  offensive,  disgusting,  irritating,  or  even  maddening; 
and  without  observing  too,  that  in  our  reckless  usage  we  have 
burned  up  a  word  which  might  be  convenient  when  we  should 
need  to  mark  some  shading  of  the  word  "  increase."  Like  the 
bad  cook,  we  seize  the  frying  pan  whenever  we  need  to  fry,  broil, 
roast,  or  stew,  and  then  we  wonder  why  all  our  dishes  taste  alike 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES     83 

while  in  the  next  house  the  food  is  appetizing.  It  is  all  unneces- 
sary. Enlarge  the  vocabulary.  Let  any  one  who  wants  to  see 
himself  grow,  resolve  to  adopt  two  new  words  each  week.  It  will 
not  be  long  before  the  endless  and  enchanting  variety  of  the  world 
will  begin  to  reflect  itself  in  his  speech,  and  in  his  mind  as  well.  I 
know  that  when  we  use  a  word  for  the  first  time  we  are  startled, 
as  if  a  firecracker  went  off  in  our  neighborhood.  We  look  about 
hastily  to  see  if  any  one  has  noticed.  But  finding  that  no  one  has, 
we  may  be  emboldened.  A  word  used  three  times  slips  off  the 
tongue  with  entire  naturalness.  Then  it  is  ours  forever,  and  with 
it  some  phase  of  life  which  had  been  lacking  hitherto.  For  each 
word  presents  its  own  point  of  view,  discloses  a  special  aspect  of 
things,  reports  some  little  importance  not  otherwise  conveyed, 
and  so  contributes  its  small  emancipation  to  our  tied-up  minds 
and  tongues.  (G.  H.  Palmer.} 

FRESHMEN  AND  LIFE  * 

This  is  the  freshman's  hour.  Day  by  day  during  the  past  week 
entering  classes  have  been  asked  by  presidents  and  deans  to 
consider  why  they  have  come  to  college  and  to  remember  that 
student  days  are  but  a  preparation  for  after-life.  Books  for  their 
special  benefit  also  come  out  at  this  season.  One  by  a  professor 
mindful  of  a  first  year  at  college  wasted  lies  at  hand.  It  contains 
the  usual  admonition  to  young  men  to  bear  in  mind  that  life  is 
earnest,  to  maintain  steadfastness  of  purpose,  and  to  cling  to  the 
ideals  of  one's  childhood.  With  its  exalted  purpose  no  one  will 
quarrel.  In  America  as  elsewhere  the  number  of  freshmen  who 
idle,  or  fall  into  grievous  follies,  through  lack  of  timely  warning, 
is  large;  and  only  by  serious,  straightforward  talk  can  they  be 
raised  to  their  better  selves. 

Yet  it  is  a  question  whether  such  advice  does  not  misplace  the 
emphasis.  Neither  in  the  comments  just  cited  nor  in  the  various 
addresses  of  college  presidents  which  the  book  includes,  are  the 

1  A  Nation  editorial;  reprinted  with  the  kind  permission  of  the  No- 
tion. 


84  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

possibilities  of  the  essential  freedom  of  collegiate  existence  suffi- 
ciently stressed.  This  freedom  is  what  undoubtedly  most  im- 
presses the  freshman,  be  he  by  nature  a  loafer  or  serious  minded; 
for  the  moment  it  is  the  central  fact  of  his  life.  Issuing  from  the 
discipline  of  home  or  boarding  school,  he  finds  himself  in  an  at- 
mosphere in  which  he  seems  to  be  master  of  his  destiny.  The 
resultant  zest  might  wisely  be  taken  by  educators  as  a  starting- 
point.  In  a  negative  sense  it  is  so  taken.  That  is,  men  are  cau- 
tioned not  to  fancy  that  this  is  really  freedom,  and  with  such  a 
lead  it  is  easy  to  point  out  that  no  moments  of  life  are  detached 
from  the  thread  of  our  being,  that  what  we  do  to-day  helps  to 
shape  our  attitude  years  hence.  Now,  not  all  freshmen  are  weak, 
by  any  means;  yet  appeal  is  not  made  to  the  imagination  of  the 
strong  as  it  should  be.  To  them  the  hearty  if  raucous  tone  of  a 
famous  professor,  now  dead,  would  have  a  welcome  sound.  He 
used  to  urge  certain  young  gentlemen  to  have  experience.  "  It 
will  cost  you  dear,  but  have  it."  The  goodness  of  his  own  life  for- 
bade one  to  read  into  his  words  permission  to  do  unworthy  acts. 
Out  of  the  strong  cometh  forth  sweetness.  If  colleges  are  to 
maintain  their  distinction,  the  note  must  be  struck  by  exceptional 
men,  and  the  great  opportunities  of  these  should  not  be  slighted 
by  preoccupation  with  saving  the  unfit  from  hardships.  Democ- 
racy in  education  need  lead  to  no  such  extreme. 

The  democratic  spirit  has  given  to  the  accepted  phrase  "  prepa- 
ration for  life"  a  meaning  too  strict.  It  is  not  necessary  that  all 
freshmen  should  be  made  to  see  the  precise  connection  between 
college  and  the  world  at  large.  Colleges  by  splendid  traditions 
have  amply  justified  themselves,  and  the  important  point  for  en- 
tering students  to  understand  is  the  opportunity  for  intellectual 
expansion  which  lies  before  them.  The  magic  of  pure  speculation 
is  something  which  even  a  boy,  if  rightly  handled,  can  distinctly 
feel.  From  signifying  preparation  for  life  in  a  very  general  way, 
the  college  has  too  often,  in  the  minds  of  educators,  come  to  mean 
life  itself,  in  the  conventional  sense.  This  it  legitimately  is  not. 
What  have  the  problems  of  pure  mathematics  to  do  with  ''real 
life"?  Yet  it  would  be  a  pity  if  mathematicians,  sensitive  over 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES    85 

the  clamorings  of  efficiency  sharpers,  should  entirely  forego  their 
labors  on  infinity  for  nearer  examples  drawn  from  our  everlasting 
shops  and  factories. 

In  some  way  the  freshman  must  be  made  to  think  of  college 
not  only  as  a  preparation  for  life,  but  also  as  being  much  detached 
from  life.  Properly  used,  college  should  be  analogous  to  a  jour- 
ney to  Europe  taken  for  the  purpose  of  better  understanding 
America.  Conditions  in  the  two  spheres  greatly  differ,  but  nei- 
ther distorts  eternal  values.  The  point  could  be  the  more  easily 
enforced  because  of  the  attitude  in  which  even  the  freshman  ordi- 
narily presents  himself.  Emancipated  for  the  moment  he  really 
is,  as  he  imagines,  and  in  a  sense  is  free  to  shape  the  world  unto  his 
desire.  The  trust  which  at  the  outset  many  a  boy  places  in  the 
efficacy  of  thought  as  taught  by  his  masters  is  pathetic  when  con- 
trasted with  the  little  that  is  done  to  foster  it.  In  this  country 
this  disillusioning  comes  much  sooner  than  in  Europe.  Take  men 
fresh  from  Oxford.  Almost  invariably  they  show  great  self- 
assurance  in  applying  their  book-learning  to  life.  Amusing  they 
may  appear  to  hardened  worldlings,  yet  they  testify  to  a  whole- 
some state  of  instruction.  From  reading  the  accepted  authorities 
and  from  discussing  these  as  though  they  were  still  matters  of 
live  importance,  they  emerge  with  the  "  jump,"  as  they  suppose, 
on  their  less  educated  fellows.  And  it  is  indeed  significant  that 
Oxford,  which  in  so  many  ways  stands  aloof  from  the  world  of 
the  immediate  present,  yet  contrives  to  prepare  her  sons  almost 
at  once  to  undertake  pressing  duties  of  the  realm.  Oxford  men 
pride  themselves  upon  having  dwelt  while  at  college  in  regions 
somewhat  magical.  It  would  be  well  if  this  magical  element  in 
college  education  were  not  neglected  by  presidents  and  deans  at 
opening  time.  This  it  is,  we  fancy,  which  a  rightminded  fresh- 
man vaguely  feels,  and  calls  freedom;  the  pity  is  that  too  often 
he  is  not  encouraged  to  convert  his  yearnings  into  a  freedom  of  the 
noblest  sort. 


86  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

AMERICANISM  * 
BY  HARTLEY  B.  ALEXANDER 

Four  great  historical  documents,  marking  progressive  epochs 
in  our  national  history,  give  the  essential  definition  of  American- 
ism in  politics.  First  is  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  signed 
July  4,  1776,  proclaiming  the  principles  by  which  the  United 
States  justify  their  independence  of  European  domination.  Sec- 
ond is  President  Monroe's  message  to  Congress,  of  December  2, 
1823,  announcing  the  right  of  the  peoples  of  the  western  hemi- 
sphere to  pursue  their  political  destinies  without  interference 
from  Old  World  powers.  Third  is  Lincoln's  memorial  address  at 
Gettysburg,  November  19, 1863,  in  which  the  rights  of  Americans 
to  their  own  continents  are  affirmed  to  be  inalienably  democrati- 
cal,  and  without  democracy  to  be  forfeit.  Fourth  is  the  message 
delivered  by  President  Wilson  at  the  joint  session  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress,  April  2, 1917,  asserting  the  value  of  the  dem- 
ocratical  polity  to  the  whole  territorial  world  and  the  right  to  it 
of  the  entire  human  race. 

These  documents  are  not  themselves  causes  of  political  conduct 
in  any  primary  sense.  Rather,  each  is  a  summary  of  contempo- 
rary political  conviction  —  from  which  fact  arises  the  height  of 
their  significance  as  expression  of  the  political  faith  of  America. 
It  is  certainly  true  that  this  faith  has  been  clarified  and  invigo- 
rated by  the  fine  intelligence  of  the  expression;  for  more  than  to 
any  other  form  of  state,  public  intelligence  is  necessary  to  de- 
mocracy. Nevertheless,  as  in  every  other  form  of  state,  the  final 
sanction  of  government  is  the  faith  of  the  citizen;  which  is  the  im- 
pulse for  that  conduct  whereof,  in  democracies,  intelligence  alone 
can  set  the  pattern.  The  patterns  of  Americanism  are  its  public 
utterances,  with  the  four  that  have  been  mentioned  in  the  stations 
of  preeminence. 

Out  of  each  of  these  documents  may  be  chosen  phrases  which 

1  Reprinted  through  the  kind  permission  of  the  author  and  of  the 
publishers  of  the  New  Republic. 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES    87 

serve  as  texts  of  their  fuller  meaning.  "All  men  are  created  equal 
.  .  .  unalienable  rights  .  .  .  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness " :  this  is  the  core  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  voicing 
in  eighteenth  century  speech  that  belief  of  democrats  in  men's 
right  to  the  self-responsible  making  of  their  own  laws  which  is  fun- 
damental in  our  polity.  It  is  true  that  this  formal  meaning  of  the 
pronouncement  has  received  many  material  alterations  in  the 
course  of  a  century  of  history  (though  none,  certainly,  that 
weaken  the  strength  of  the  form) ;  and  among  them,  not  the  least, 
a  vast  extension  of  the  meaning  of  "  all  men"  and  a  profound  com- 
plexification  of  the  doctrine  of  "rights."  The  men  who  signed 
the  Declaration,  though  their  minds  were  broad  with  the  morning, 
were  yet  but  conscious  rebels.  What  they  felt  was  less  the 
tyranny  of  the  Old  World  than  the  independence  of  the  New, 
and  what  they  demanded  was  the  right  of  free  experimentation 
in  lands  unspoiled.  The  true  foundation  of  the  rights  of  man  as 
they  knew  them  was  their  own  self-confidence  in  their  own  politi- 
cal sagacity.  The  beginning  of  American  liberty  was  the  com- 
manding acceptance  of  responsibility. 

The  Declaration  proclaimed  America's  right  to  try  out  democ- 
racy; the  Monroe  Doctrine  proclaimed  both  the  success  of  the  ex- 
periment and  the  belligerent  intention  to  broaden  its  territorial 
marches.  "  The  American  continents,  by  the  free  and  independent 
condition  which  they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  henceforth 
not  to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  future  colonization  by  any 
European  powers."  The  italicized  phrase  is  the  important  one: 
it  proclaims  again  the  acceptance  of  responsibility,  no  longer 
for  experiment,  but  for  huge  expansion.  The  Monroe  Doctrine, 
in  effect,  established  a  greater  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  having  the 
natural  seas  for  its  delineations.  Unless  history  shall  show 
greater  consequences  from  President  Wilson's  War  Message,  it  is 
the  most  ambitious  political  proclamation  ever  made  effective. 
In  its  own  consciousness  the  United  States  was  no  longer,  as  de 
Tocqueville  and  other  sympathetic  Europeans  regarded  it, 
merely  an  unexpected  fruitful  trial  of  precarious  political  theory; 
it  was  now  confident  and  aggressive,  with  ambitions  outpassing 


88  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

the  grandiosities  of  emperors  —  and  incidentally  and  immedi- 
ately, defying  emperors  and  their  ambitions;  for  the  direct  occa- 
sion of  Monroe's  message  was  the  threat  of  the  Holy  Alliance  for 
the  re-subjection  of  South  America  and  the  Russian  threat  of 
expansion  in  North  America. 

The  truly  arrogant  pretentiousness  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is 
best  realized  when  we  contrast  the  sparseness  of  the  human  popu- 
lation in  the  western  hemisphere  with  the  relatively  crowded  con- 
dition of  the  eastern:  virtually,  since  the  democratic  faith  was  but 
meagerly  represented  in  the  Old  World  at  that  time,  it  was  a  de- 
mand from  an  insignificant  minority  among  men  that  they  be 
possessed  of  a  third  of  the  world.  Certainly,  such  a  demand  could 
never  have  received  any  general  recognition  had  it  not  been 
coupled  with  a  free  invitation  to  all  European  peoples  to  colonize 
America  in  every  sense  save  the  political;  the  convincing  corollary 
to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was  the  open  door  to  immigrants.  It 
may  be  remarked  that  the  situation  is  not  greatly  changed  to-day. 
The  Americas  are  still  the  most  sparsely  populated  of  the  great 
habitable  areas  of  our  globe;  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  still  in  force. 
But  the  test  of  its  strength  is  to  come  not  from  Europe  but  from 
Asia.  The  real  issue,  before  Americans  and  Europeans  alike,  is 
now  whether,  in  the  interests  of  political  independence,  the  west- 
ern hemisphere  must  not,  and  in  fairness,  open  the  doors  of  immi- 
gration to  the  Oriental.  Can  the  Caucasian  west  preempt  this 
virginal  domain  to  the  lasting  exclusion  of  the  congested  east? 
What  is  the  meaning  of  "all  men"  in  our  Declaration? 

Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address  represents  cognizance  of  the 
same  fundamental  problem  from  the  angle  of  internal  organiza- 
tion; it  is,  as  it  were,  the  conscious  self-measurement  of  the  New 
World  polity  in  the  glass  of  its  own  ideals.  The  speech  looks 
back  to  the  nation's  beginnings,  and,  in  a  sense,  it  is  a  final  re- 
affirmation  of  what  Monroe  had  before  affirmed:  that  the  experi- 
mental stage  of  American  democracy  was  passed,  and  that 
thenceforth,  bulwarked  by  America,  "government  of  the  people, 
for  the  people,  and  by  the  people"  should  not  perish  from  the 
earth.  It  affirmed  this,  not  in  view  of  external  threat,  but  in  the 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES    89 

presence  of  internal;  in  effect  stating  that  America  could  not  tol- 
erate from  any  group  of  its  own  people  the  formation  and  perpet- 
uation of  an  oligarchical  or  other  form  of  anti-democratical  state, 
that  democracy  alone  should  be  free  to  develop  in  the  western 
hemisphere,  for  the  very  reason  that  democracy  is  imperiled  by 
non-democratical  neighbors.  The  address  was,  in  short,  an 
apostolic  profession  that  democracy  is  convinced  of  its  own  right- 
eousness, and  is  intolerant  of  all  dangerous  rivals. 

Supporting  this  profession  there  was  a  profounder  meaning 
than  the  ostensible  one  of  territorial  union  and  political  unity. 
The  meaning  of  "all  men"  still  called  for  definition,  and  Lincoln 
could  not  use  the  word  " people"  in  any  cant  sense.  He  had  long 
before  proclaimed  that  the  nation  could  not  endure  half  slave  and 
half  free;  he  well  knew  that  the  crux  of  the  war  was  the  slave 
question;  and  no  man  could  have  been  wiselier  conscious  than  he 
of  the  fact  that  the  settlement  of  that  question  for  freedom  must 
mean  ultimately  a  redefinition  of  "people"  and  a  new  conception 
of  American  citizenship.  The  United  States  had  liberally  wel- 
comed Europeans  of  many  tongues  and  complexions,  who  should 
be  the  making  of  its  people;  now  it  was  ready  to  take  into  the 
body  politic  millions  of  that  race  which  is  most  antipodal  to  the 
European.  The  enfranchisement  of  the  American  blacks  is  the 
most  heroic  act  of  political  faith  in  history.  True,  the  problem 
of  readjustment  has  none  of  the  simplicity  which  the  idealists  of 
that  time  dreamed  it  to  have;  it  is  a  problem  that  now  is  and  will 
long  continue  with  us.  But  the  faith  that  was  in  the  Declaration 
and  that  forms  the  heart  of  Americanism  to-day,  faith  in  the  civic 
nobility  and  therefore  in  the  civic  rights  of  all  nature  which  we 
can  call  human,  received  in  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Negroes 
its  extreme  attestation.  From  that  time  forward  Americans 
could  face  the  world,  conscious  that  they  had  made  themselves 
clean  with  their  first  profession.  Race  questions  and  class  ques- 
tions —  as  distinguished  from  questions  of  formal  politics  —  will 
long  continue  to  vex  us,  and  eventually  the  Mongol  problem  will 
be  huger  than  the  Negro;  but  by  implication  all  of  these  were 
settled,  and  not  only  for  us,  but  for  all  democratical  peoples,  when 


90  SUMMARY  SENTENCES 

our  Civil  War  came  to  its  issue.  The  civic  man  is  henceforth  of 
no  preferred  complexion  and  of  no  recognized  caste  —  at  least, 
this  is  now  a  fixed  article  in  our  American  faith  in  a  "government 
of  the  people":  Americanism  cannot  be  for  "all  men"  in  any 
lesser  sense  than  for  "men  of  all  kindreds." 

The  Revolutionary  War  established  the  privilege  of  democracy 
in  the  New  World.  A  mature  generation  later  that  privilege  was 
converted  into  an  aggressive  right,  balking  the  ambitious  preten- 
sions of  the  Caesars  of  that  day  in  respect  to  the  two  western  con- 
tinents. Another  generation  matured,  and  the  Civil  War  marked 
the  purification  of  democracy  in  its  own  house,  and  a  final  clear- 
conscious  recognition  of  the  uttermost  intention  of  the  term  de- 
mocracy. Now  a  third  generation  has  matured  and  passed,  and 
in  a  war  outmeasuring  all  those  that  men  have  fought  the  United 
States  is  called  once  more,  not  only  to  stand  for  its  political  faith, 
but  to  expand  the  meaning  of  that  faith.  The  stand  and  the  ex- 
pansion have  both  been  made,  and  (true  to  the  genius  of  his 
nation)  the  President  has  given  their  meaning  in  a  penetrating 
phrase.  "The  world  must  be  made  safe  for  democracy;  its  peace 
must  be  planted  upon  tested  foundations  of  political  liberty." 
The  World  !  Here,  indeed,  is  expansion;  our  globe  has  shrunk  too 
small  for  democratic  and  autocratic  states  to  subsist  together,  nor 
can  Ocean  herself  constrain  them  in  separation.  Democracy  has 
issued  her  final  defiance  to  all  the  citadels  of  absolutism,  proclaim- 
ing no  longer  her  right  to  independence,  nor  merely  her  right  to 
her  own  free  field,  but  now  her  purposed  supremacy  in  all  fields 
and  over  all  politics.  Here  is  arrogance  of  pretension  out-match- 
ing Monroe's,  whose  broad-limned  compromise  breaks  futile,  like 
the  old  compromises  of  North  and  South.  Democracy  is  now 
claiming  for  herself  no  lesser  thing  than  the  world. 

The  new  declaration  is  fittingly  accompanied  by  a  reaffirmation 
of  the  old.  The  "tested  foundations  of  political  liberty"  refer  us 
once  again  to  the  trial  which  our  national  history  has  given  to  our 
national  faith,  proudly  asserting  that  we  have  passed  the  trial 
with  triumph,  and  that  the  high  self-confidence  of  the  authors  of 
the  Declaration  has  been  justified  to  their  sons's  sons.  But  more 


EXERCISES  IN  SUMMARY  SENTENCES    91 

than  this,  the  new  declaration,  like  those  which  have  preceded  it, 
adds  new  meaning  to  the  whole  national  faith.  Our  fight,  said 
the  President,  is  for  the  liberation  of  the  world's  peoples,  "the 
German  people  included,"  —  therein  asserting  the  right  of  democ- 
racy to  a  kind  of  spiritual  colonization,  even  in  antagonistic  lands. 
The  assertion  of  such  a  right,  unless  it  were  the  deepest  of  convic- 
tions, could  only  be  the  most  incredible  effrontery;  and  if  convic- 
tion, it  can  have  for  its  meaning  naught  save  a  new  definition  of 
"all  men."  Henceforth,  the  word  "people"  must  include  not 
merely  men  of  all  external  complexions,  but  men  of  all  internal 
complexions,  not  merely  men  of  all  classes,  but  men  of  all  polities 
—  and  for  the  reason  that  there  is  but  one  true  form  of  the  truly 
human  polity,  and  that  is  the  democratical  form.  The  faith  that 
underlies  such  an  assumption  is  prodigious;  and  it  is  in  that  faith 
that  we  are  fighting,  for  it  is  the  core  of  Americanism.  Fighting, 
and  at  the  same  time  watching  and  listening  with  an  eager  and 
amazing  confidence  for  the  first  signs  of  response  from  the  German 
people;  for  the  President  spoke  only  what  all  Americans  in  their 
hearts  believe,  when  he  said  that  our  war  is  with  institutions  and 
not  people. 

Americanism  has  received  its  definition  in  four  great  docu- 
ments. Three  of  these  have  been  issued  upon  the  occasion  of 
great  wars,  and  the  fourth,  for  near  a  century,  has  been  as  dis- 
tinctly belligerent  in  character  as  the  mailed  fist  or  the  jangling 
sabre.  Americanism  is,  obviously,  no  pacifist  faith.  But  it  is, 
none  the  less,  a  faith.  It  is  a  faith  vast  in  its  pretensions  beyond 
all  dreams  of  autocrats;  and  it  is  a  faith,  despite  its  century  of 
trial,  little  justified  by  what  has  transpired  in  human  history. 
Yet  in  the  face  of  autocrats  and  of  history,  it  is  inwardly  unshaken 
and  serene,  religious  in  its  confidence,  miraculous  in  its  hopes.  Its 
foundation  is  something  more  constraining  than  experience  and 
far  more  compelling  than  reason;  for  its  foundation  is  an  inner 
light,  which  for  us  is  like  a  revelation,  showing  as  in  an  apocalypse 
the  common  humanity  of  "all  men."  Americanism  is  a  faith 
that  men  have  died  for,  and  that  men  are  dying  for  to-day  — 
whether  it  be  a  madness  or  divinity  that  hath  touched  them 
with  it. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

1.  Abbreviations.     Avoid  all  abbreviations  in  formal 
writing,  with  these  exceptions: 

a.  Such  common  abbreviations  as  Mr.,  Mrs.,  A.D., 
i.e.,  and  etc.;  and 

b.  Such  abbreviations  as  A.M.,  P.M.,  Dr.,  and  No. 
when  used  with  other  words. 

Absolute  Phrases.     See  22. 

2.  Adjective  for  Adverb.    Do  not  use  an  adjective  where 
the  construction  calls  for  an  adverb. 

Wrong:  It  is  said  that  he  talks  too  rapid. 
Right:  It  is  said  that  he  talks  too  rapidly. 

What  is  the  difference  between: 

He  nailed  it  firm,  and  He  nailed  it  firmly  ? 

3.  Agreement  of  Subject  and  Verb.    A  verb  should  agree 
in  number  with  its  subject.     The  following  cases  re- 
quire study: 

a.  A  singular  subject  +  plural  modifier  +  verb. 

Wrong:  A  list  of  many  things  have  been  drawn  up. 
Right:  A  list  of  many  things  has  been  drawn  up. 

b.  Each,  every,  any  one,  etc.,  require  singular  verbs. 

Wrong:  Each  of  the  men  were  eager  for  the  fight. 
Right:  Each  of  the  men  was  eager  for  the  fight. 

c.  Two  or  more  subjects  joined  by  or  or  nor  do  not 
form  a  plural  subject.    The  verb  agrees  with  the 
nearest  subject. 


APPOSITIVES  93 

Wrong:  Neither  the  man  nor  his  wife  are  at  home. 
Right:  Neither  the  man  nor  his  wife  is  at  home. 

d.  The  number  of  the  subject  is  not  altered  by  the 
addition  of  with,  together  with,  as  well  as,  etc.,  to 
the  subject. 

Wrong:  I,  as  well  as  my  brother,  are  coming. 
Right:  I,  as  well  as  my  brother,  am  coming. 

4.  Ambiguity.     See  pp.  56-58,  61-65. 

5.  "And  Which."     "And  which"  and  "but  which" 
should  be  used  only  to  connect  two  parallel  relative 
clauses. 

Wrong:  We  live  in  a  large  house,  and  which  was  built 

many  years  ago. 

Right:  We  live  in  a  large  house  which  is  very  old 
and  which  was  built  many  years  ago. 

6.  Apostrophe.     Some  of  the  most  common  uses  of  the 
apostrophe  are  as  follows: 

a.  To  indicate  possession: 

Examples:  The  boy's  books;  a  boys9  school. 

Note:  The  pronouns  form  their  possessive  simply 
by  adding  s :  Examples:  hers,  yours,  his,  its. 

b.  To  show  that  a  letter  has  been  omitted: 

Example:  Its,  the  possessive  of  it,  should  not  be  con- 
fused with  it's,  the  contraction  for  it  is. 

c.  To  form  the  plurals  of  letters  and  figures. 

Examples:  There  are  two  a's  in  separate.  Don't 
write  your  3 's  so  that  they  will  look  like 
5's. 

Note:  The  apostrophe  must  not  be  used  to  form 
the  plural  of  nouns. 

Appositives,  Punctuation  of.     See  13. 


94  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

7.  Capitalization.     Study  carefully  the  following  rules 
for  capitalization: 

a.  Do  not  capitalize  a  word  unless  you  have  a  good 
reason  for  doing  so. 

b.  The  first  word  of  a  direct  quotation  begins  with 
a  capital. 

Example:  He  said,  "When  do  you  graduate?" 

c.  The  first  word  of  every  sentence,  query,  formal 
resolution  or  salutation  begins  with  a  capital. 

Examples:  Resolved,  That  the  Government  should 
own  and  operate  the  railroads  of  this 
country. 

To  all  men  who  read  this  notice,  Be  it 
known,  etc. 

d.  All  words  referring  to  God,  Jesus,  and  the  Bible 
are  usually  capitalized. 

e.  Important  words   in   literary   titles   should   be 
capitalized. 

Example:  Have  you  read  The  Way  of  the  World  ? 

/.  All    proper    nouns    and    adjectives    should    be 
capitalized. 

Examples:  I  shall  arrive  at  the  Park  Street  Station 
the  first  Tuesday  in  May  and  shall 
spend  the  summer  with  you.  (Note 
that  the  names  of  the  seasons  are  not 
capitalized.) 

London  is  the  capital  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, which  includes  many  countries 
both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West. 

The  Democratic  party,  which  is  very  strong 
in  the  South,  elected  President  Wilson. 


CASE  95 

Note:  (i)  that  east,  west,  etc.,  are  not  capitalized 
unless  they  refer  to  social,  economic,  or  political 
divisions  of  a  country;  (2)  that  names  of  subjects 
taught  in  school  or  college  are  not  capitalized  un- 
less they  are  covered  by  rule/;  (3)  that  such  com- 
mon nouns  as  professor,  uncle,  street,  high  school, 
and  college  are  not  capitalized  unless  they  are  used 
with  a  particular  person  or  thing: 

Example:  Before  I  entered  Columbia  University  I  had 
never  personally  known  a  college  professor. 

8.  Case. 

a.  The  possessive  case  of  nouns  is  formed  by  adding 
's  or  the  simple  apostrophe.  Thus,  John's,  boy's, 
boys',    Dickens',    Dickens's.     Except   in    a    few 
common  expressions  such  as  "a  day's  journey," 

"for  pity's  sake,"  do  not  use  the  possessive  case 
of  nouns  denoting  inanimate  things;  use  the 
preposition  of. 

The  possessive  case  of  pronouns  is  never 
formed  with  the  apostrophe:  its,  hers,  theirs,  his, 
ours.  Note  the  difference  between  its  and  it's. 

b.  Avoid  using  the  nominative  case  of  a  pronoun  as 
the  object  of  a  preposition: 

Wrong:  A  crowd  of  we  boys  went  on  a  hunting  trip. 
Right:  A  crowd  of  us  boys  went  on  a  hunting  trip. 

Wrong:  It  is  a  secret  between  you  and  /. 
Right:  It  is  a  secret  between  you  and  me. 

c.  Do  not  use  the  objective  case  of  a  pronoun  as  a 
subjective  complement: 

Wrong:  It  is  me  (him,  her,  them). 
Right:  It  is  /  (he,  she,  they}. 


96  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

d.  Distinguish    carefully    between    who,    whoever 
(nominatives)  and  whom,  whomever  (objectives): 

Wrong:  Who  did  you  see  this  morning? 

Right:  Whom  did  you  see  this  morning? 
Wrong:  Show  the  paper  to  whomever  asks  about  it. 
Right:  Show  the  paper  to  whoever  asks  about  it.  (Who- 
ever is  the  subject  of  asks,  not  the  object  of  to.) 
Wrong:  The  friend  whom  I  thought  was  coming  dis- 
appointed me. 

Right:  The  friend  who  I  thought  was  coming  disap- 
pointed me. 

(Who  is  the  subject  of  was  coming,  not  the  object  of 
thought,  which  is  parenthetical.) 

e.  After  the  conjunctions  than  and  as  in  elliptical 
clauses  of  comparison  use  the  nominative  case: 

Wrong:  He  is  more  active  than  me. 

Right:  He  is  more  active  than  /  (am). 
Wrong:  I  am  not  so  active  as  him. 

Right:  I  am  not  so  active  as  he  (is).     (See  like  and  as, 
p.  14.) 

Choppy  Sentences.    See  45. 
9.  Clearness.    See  24,  49,  and  pp.  57-58,  61-65. 

10.  Climax.    See  p.  48. 

11.  Coherence.     Coherence  in  sentences  demands  that 
the  writer  should  make  instantly  clear  the  relation  of 
the  parts  of  the  sentence  to  each  other.     See  pp.  37- 
40,  6 1-68,  and  Modifiers,  Reference,  Agreement,  Num- 
ber,   Dangling    Elliptical   Clause,    Dangling  Gerund, 
Dangling  Participle,  Conjunctions,  Parallelism,  Point 
of  View,  and  Omissions. 

Colloquialisms.     See  36. 


COMMA  WITH  DIRECT  QUOTATIONS      97 

12.  Colon.    See  pp.  22-23. 

Comma  to  set  off  Absolute  Phrases.    See  22. 

13.  Comma  to  set  off  Appositives.     An  appositive,  with 
or  without  or,  such  as,  as,  or  other  introductory  word, 
should  be  set  off  by  a   comma  from  the  noun  it 
modifies. 

Right:  Any  baggage,  such  as  trunks,  must  be  left  at  home. 
When  the  appositive  forms  a  part  of  a  name  or 
is  quoted,  it  should  not  be  set  off. 

Right:  Alfred  the  Great  died  in  901. 
Right:  Avoid  the  word  enthuse  and  the  expression  "  Get 
my  goat." 

14.  Comma  in  Compound  Sentences.    Use  a  comma  be- 
tween the  clauses  of  a  compound  sentence  that  are 
connected  by  a  simple  conjunction  such  as  but,  and, 
nor,  or,  yet.     When  the  clauses  are  not  so  joined,  use 
a  semicolon.     See  pp.  16—17,  21-22. 

15.  Comma  after  Dependent  Clause.     When  the   de- 
pendent clause  precedes  the  main  clause,  the  depend- 
ent clause  should  be  set  off  by  a  comma. 

Example:  When  he  comes,  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  him. 
See  also  p.  18. 

When  the  dependent  clause  follows  the  main  clause, 
the  comma  is  necessary  only  when  the  dependent 
clause  is  non-restrictive. 

16.  Comma  to  set  off  Words  in  Direct  Address.    Words 
used  in  direct  address  —  vocatives  —  are  set  off  by 
commas  from  the  rest  of  the  sentence: 

You  are  not  going,  Paul,  are  you? 
Paul,  you  are  not  going,  are  you  ? 

Comma  with  Direct  Quotations,    See  35. 


98  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

17.  Comma  Fault.    See  pp.  8-9. 

18.  Comma  before  For.     See  p.  18. 
Comma-ior-Period.    See  17. 

19.  Comma  with  Geographical  Expressions  and  Dates. 

Names  of  places  and  dates  used  to  explain  a  pre- 
ceding name  or  date  are,  or  course,  parenthetical,  and 
should  be  set  off  by  commas: 

I  arrived  in  Atlanta,  Ga.,  on  July  14,  1916,  at  seven 

o'clock  in  the  evening. 
He  lives  at  No.  367  West  Avenue,  (Ave.,  Street,  or  St.,) 

Chicago,  111. 
Last  summer  we  visited  both  Portland,  Oregon,  (Ore.,) 

and  Portland,  Maine. 

Comma  with  Interjections.    See  22. 

Comma  to  set  off  Introductory  Expressions.    See  22. 

20.  Comma  to  set  off  Non-Restrictive  Modifiers.    Use 

commas  to  set  off  non-restrictive  phrases  and  clauses. 

President  White,  who  has  just  returned  to  the  city, 
gave  an  interview  to  the  reporters  this  morning. 

Montenegro,  situated  as  she  is,  must  cultivate  friendly 
relations  with  her  neighbors. 

For  the  distinction  between  restrictive  and  non- 
restrictive  modifiers,  see  62. 

21.  Comma  to  mark  Omissions.    The  comma  is  used  to 
mark   the   omission   of   an   important   word.      For 
example: 

Shakspere  was  a  self-trained  writer;  Marlowe,  a  uni- 
versity product. 

22.  Comma  to  mark  Parenthetical  Expressions.     Com- 
mas are  used  to  separate  from  the  rest  of  the  sentence 
any  parenthetical  expressions,,  that  is,  expressions,  in.- 


COMMA  BETWEEN  MEMBERS  IN  A  SERIES    99 

sorted  by  way  of  comment  or  explanation  in  a  sen- 
tence that  would  be  grammatically  complete  without 
the  inserted  expression  (interjections,  appositives, 
absolute  phrases,  introductory  words,  titles  used  with 
a  proper  name,  non-restrictive  modifiers,  etc.). 
For  examples  and  further  discussion,  see  p.  19. 

23.  Comma  to  set  off  Participial  Phrases.     Participial 
phrases  which  are  not  essential  to  the  continuity  of 
the  thought  or  construction  in  the  sentence  should  be 
set  off  by  commas: 

Being  unfamiliar  with  the  road,  I  decided  to  stop  at 

the  nearest  inn. 
My  friend,  being  unfamiliar  with  the  road,  decided  to 

stop  at  the  nearest  inn. 
He  jumped  upon  a  loose  rock  on  the  edge  of  the  cliff, 

thereby  causing  a  disastrous  landslide. 

See  also  22. 

24.  Comma  to  Prevent  Misreading.    See  pp.  17-18. 
Comma  with  Quotations.    See  35. 

25.  Comma  between  Members  in  a  Series. 

a.  When   consecutive   adjectives,   nouns,   phrases, 
etc.  used  in  the  same  construction  (coordinately) 
are  not  joined  by  a  conjunction,  the  members  of 
the  series  should  be  separated  by  commas. 

Examples: 

He  was  a  tall,  sallow,  gaunt  man. 

He  spoke  with  energy,  with  gusto,  with  charm. 

b.  When  such  members  are  joined  by  a  conjunc- 
tion, the  use  of  the  comma  is  generally  held  to 
be  optional,  unless  clearness  calls  for  it. 

Examples: 

Right:  He  was  a  tall,  sallow,  and  gaunt  man. 
4ko  right:  He  was  a  tall,  sallow  and  gaunt 


100  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

Comma  with  Titles.    See  22. 

26.  Comma,  Unnecessary.    Avoid  the  use  of  unnecessary 
commas: 

Wrong:  He  said,  that  he  would  come. 
I  do  not  see,  how  he  does  it. 
On  the  table,  is  a  large  vase. 
I  have  been  reading,  poems,  plays,  and  novels. 
The  hill  was  covered  with  trees,  and  rocks. 
Right:  He  said  that  he  would  come. 
I  do  not  see  how  he  does  it. 
On  the  table  is  a  large  vase. 
I  have  been  reading  poems,  plays,  and  novels. 
The  hill  was  covered  with  trees  and  rocks. 

When  in  doubt  as  to  the  use  of  a  comma,  remember 
that  it  is  a  far  more  serious  error  to  use  a  comma  that 
cannot  be  defended  than  to  omit  a  comma  where  one 
should  be  used. 

27.  Compound    Sentences,    Stringy.      Avoid    rambling 
compound  sentences  crudely  joined  by  a  string  of 
and's  or  but's. 

I  hunted  all  day  and  did  my  best,  but  killed  only  two 
birds,  and  then  returned  home,  but  I  was  happy  and 
contented. 

To  revise  a  sentence  of  this  type,  subordinate  all 
subordinate  ideas  and  if  necessary  divide  the  long 
sentence  into  shorter  sentences.  See  also  31. 

28.  Conjunctions.    See  pp.  12-15. 

29.  Conjunctive  Adverbs,  Semicolon  before.     See  pp.  13 
and  21. 

30.  Connectives.    See  pp.  32-33. 


PARAGRAPHING  OF  DIALOGUE         W 

Consecutive  Adjectives  or  Nouns,  Punctuation  of. 
See  25  and  p.  7. 

31.  Coordination,  Excessive  or  Illogical. 

Avoid  excessive  coordination  by  subordinating  all 
subordinate  ideas  in  the  sentence: 

Bad:  It  was  a  cool  afternoon  and  we  had  a  fast  game. 
Better:  Since  it  was  a  cool  afternoon,  we  had  a  fast  game. 

Avoid  illogical  and  obscure  coordination: 

Illogical:  He  is  here,  and  he  is  not  going  to  deliver  his 

address. 
Logical:  He  is  here,  but  he  is  not  going  to  deliver  his 

address. 
Not  clear:  He  was  very  fond  of  playing  baseball,  and 

left  home  at  once. 

Clear:  He  was  very  fond  of  playing  baseball,  and,  since 
he  wanted  to  join  one  of  the  major  leagues, 
he  left  home  at  once. 

See  also  pp.  27-33. 

32.  Dangling  Elliptical  Clause,  Gerund,  or  Participle. 

See  pp.  61-62. 

33.  Dash.    The  dash  is  used  chiefly  to  indicate  a  more  or 
less  abrupt  break  in  the  thought  of  a  sentence.    A  too 
frequent  use  of  the  dash  as  a  substitute  for  the  period 
or  the  comma  results  in  an  hysterical  style. 

Dates,  Punctuation  of.     See  19. 

34.  Dialogue,    Paragraphing    of.       In    dialogue,    every 
speech,  regardless  of  its  length,  should  be  put  into  a 
separate  paragraph.     The  explanatory  words  of  in- 
troduction or  comment  should  be  put  in  the  para- 
graph with  the  speech. 


102  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

35.  Dialogue,  Punctuation  of.      Follow  these  models  in 
punctuating  dialogue.      (Note  especially  the  use  of 
the  comma  to  separate  such  expressions  as  "He  said" 
from  the  direct  quotation.) 

a.  He  said,  "I  see  that  you  have  an  engagement." 

b.  '  I  see,"  he  said,  "  that  you  have  an  engagement." 

c.  "I  see  that  you  have  an  engagement,"  he  said. 

d.  "I  see  that  you  have  an  engagement,"  he  said. 
"I'll  call  again." 

e.  "Have  you  an  engagement?"  he  said. 
/.  He  said,  "Have  you  an  engagement?" 
g.  Did  he  say,  "I  have  an  engagement"? 

36.  Diction.     Diction  is  the  choice  of  words  for  the  ex- 
pression of  ideas.      Diction  is  concerned,  therefore, 
with  the  choice  of  those  words  which  will  most  clearly 
and  forcibly  express  our  ideas.     To  secure  the  most 
effective  expression  of  his  ideas  the   student  should 
bear  in  mind  the  following  cautions: 

a.  Avoid  foreign  words  by  using  English  equiva- 
lents. 

b.  Avoid  such  provincialisms  and  vulgarisms  as  in 
back  of  for  behind;  pack  for  carry;  reckon  for 
think;  ain't  for  is  not,  am  not,  has  not;  wait  on  for 
wait  for;  some  for  somewhat. 

c.  Avoid  colloquialisms  in  formal  writing.     Many 
expressions   permissible   in   informal   speech   or 
writing  become  objectionable  when  used  in  well- 
considered  discourse. 

Examples  :  Mad  for  angry  ;  funny  for  strange,  queer  ; 
don't  for  do  not. 

d.  Avoid  the  confusion  of  words  of  similar  meaning 
or  of  similar  sound,  such  as :  accept,  except;  affect^ 


DOUBLE  NEGATIVE  103 

effect;  can,  may;  fewer,  less;  lie,  lay;  sit,  set;  old, 
aged,  elderly. 

t.  Avoid  the  use  of  hackneyed  and  trite  expressions, 
such  as  waves  mountain  high,  pearly  teeth,  rosy 
cheeks,  murmuring  brooks,  happy  as  a  lark,  the 
wee  small  hours. 

f.  Avoid  inappropriateness  in  words.     Use  words 
that  have  an  association  suitable  to  the  idea  they 
are  intended  to  convey.     What  is  the  difference 
in  the  suggestive  power  of  horse,  steed,  nag,  plug, 
jar-head,  courser,  palfrey,  and  equine  ? 

See  also  Improvement  of  the  Words,  pp.  46-47. 

g.  Avoid   slang.     Slang  perhaps  has  its  place  in 
speech,  but  that  place  is  obviously  not  formal 
speech  or  writing. 

h.  Avoid  expressions  that  violate  English  idiom, 
that  is,  expressions  that  do  not  conform  to  the 
peculiarly  English  mode  of  phraseology.  Using 
the  wrong  preposition  with  certain  verbs,  nouns, 
and  adjectives  is  the  most  common  form  of  unidi- 
omatic  English.  For  example: 

I  cannot  comply  to  this  request 
violates  the  well-established  idiom  comply  with. 

Note  the  difference  in  meaning  between: 
charge  with,  charge  to;  change  with,  change  to, 
change  for;  consist  in,  consist  of. 

What  preposition  should  follow  different,  pre- 
fer, averse,  share,  dependent,  independent? 

Direct  Address.    See  16. 
37.  Double  Negative.    Avoid  the  double  negative. 

Wrong:  I  haven't  seen  no  books. 

I  can't  hardly  come  to  the  meeting  to-night. 
I  cannot  watch  but  one  ball  at  a  time. 


104  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

Right:  I  have  seen  no  books.     I  haven't  seen  any  books. 
I  can  hardly  come  to  the  meeting  to-night. 
I  can  watch  but  (  =  only)  one  ball  at  a  time. 

Each,  every,  etc.  with  Plural  Verbs.     See  3. 

38.  Economy.    See  pp.  56-58. 
Ellipsis,  Improper.    See  49. 

39.  Emphasis.     See  pp.  45-52. 

40.  Euphony.     Avoid    an    unmusical    combination    of 
sounds;  for  example: 

The  following  fall  our  teacher  told  us  to  eschew 
words  that  are  "  difficultly  pronounceable." 

Excessive  Use  of  Comma.     See  26. 

For,  Punctuation  before.     See  18. 

Geographical  Expressions,  Comma  with.     See  19. 

41.  Hyphen,  Uses  of.    The  hyphen  is  used  as  follows: 

a.  To  indicate  the  division  of  a  word  at  the  end  of  a 
line  (but  never  at  the  beginning). 

b.  To  join  the  members  of  compound  words,  such 
as  twenty-four,  father-in-law,  so-called. 

Note:  The  hyphen  should  not  be  used  to  sepa- 
rate the  syllables  of  such  uncompounded  words 
as  together,  already,  all  right,  unless  these  words 
are  divided  at  the  end  of  a  line. 

Wrong:  We  came    to-gether.     He    has    al-ready 
arrived.  Everything  is  now  all-right. 

Monosyllables  should  never  be  divided.    See  72. 

Idiom.    See  36. 

Incomplete  Sentence.    See  54. 

Interjections,  Punctuation  of.     See  22. 

Introductory  Expressions,  Punctuation  of.    See  22. 


MODIFIERS  MISPLACED  105 

42.  Italics,  Uses  of.      (Note:  Underscore  once  to  indicate 
italics.)      Italics  are  most  frequently  used  in  the  fol- 
lowing cases: 

a.  To  mark  foreign  words  which  have  not  yet  be- 
come naturalized  in  the  language. 

Exam-pie:  This  is  an  example  of  the  argument  ad 
hominem. 

b.  To  refer  to  a  word  or  a  letter  as  such: 

Example:  Care  should   be  taken  to  distinguish  be- 
tween accept  and  except,  between  ac  and  ex. 

c.  To  emphasize  a  word.     See  p.  46. 

d.  To  indicate  names  of  books,  dramas,  newspapers, 
and  magazines. 

Examples:  I  have  been  reading  the  Outlook,  Bar- 
busse's  Under  Fire,  and  the  Christian 
Science  Monitor. 

The  name  of  the  author,  of  course,  should  not 
be  italicized.     See  also  Quotation  Marks. 

e.  Names  of  ships  are  italicized: 

Example:  The  New  Mexico  is  one  of  the  finest  dread- 
noughts in  the  American  Navy. 

43.  Like  for  As.    See  page  14. 

Misreading  Prevented  by  Comma.     See  24. 

44.  Modifiers  Misplaced.     So  place  every  modifier  that 
the  reader  may  connect  it  at  once  with  the  word  it 
modifies. 

Not  Clear:  He  said  that  if  we  did  not  pay,  within  a  week, 
in  spite  of  all  our  protests,  he  would  present 
the  note  at  his  bank. 


106  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

Clear:  He  said  that  if  we  did  not  pay  within  a  week, 
he  would  present,  in  spite  of  all  our  pro- 
tests, the  note  at  his  bank. 
Wrong:  Lost:  a  dog  by  an  old  man  with  a  brass  collar 

around  his  neck. 

Right:  Lost:  by  an  old  man  a  dog  with  a  brass  collar 
around  his  neck. 

Take  especial  pains  to  place  the  adverbs  only,  just., 
almost,  and  ever  next  to  the  words  they  modify. 

Ambiguous:  He  only  hesitated  a  few  minutes. 
Clear:  He  hesitated  only  a  few  minutes. 

45.  Monotonous  Sentence  Structure.    Avoid  the  monot- 
onous repetition  of  sentences  similar  in  construction 
and  length. 

Monotonous:  I  was  standing  on  the  bank  of  a  small  river. 
I  was  looking  toward  a  grass-covered  hill.  I 
could  see  an  old  colonial  mansion  on  this 
hill.  I  noticed  eight  large  columns  that 
supported  a  beautifully  decorated  roof,  and 
on  either  side  of  the  house  I  could  see  sev- 
eral rows  of  giant  oaks. 

Better:  Standing  on  the  bank  of  a  small  river,  I  could 
see  an  old  colonial  mansion  situated  on  a 
grass-covered  hill  opposite  me.  Eight  large 
columns  supported  a  beautifully  decorated 
roof.  In  front  of  these,  on  either  side  of  the 
house,  stood  several  rows  of  giant  oaks. 

46.  Namely,  That  /s5  Punctuation  of. 

These  expressions  should  be  preceded  by  a 
semicolon  (or,  in  the  case  of  an  appositive,  a 
comma  or  colon,)  and  followed  by  a  comma. 

See  also  63. 


REPRESENTATION  OF  NUMBERS        107 

47.  Number. 

a.  Pronouns. 

A  pronoun  should  agree  in  number  with  its 
antecedent: 

Wrong:  Every  student  brought  their  books. 
Right:  Every  student  brought  his  books. 

Avoid  the  use  of  a  plural  pronominal  adjective 
with  such  singular  nouns  as  kind  and  sort. 
Wrong:  I  do  not  enjoy  reading  those  kind  of  novel. 
Right:  I  do  not  enjoy  reading  that  kind  of  novel. 

In  the  sentence 

One  of  the  most  interesting  plays  that  has  ever 
been  given  in  our  theatre  is  Shaw's  Pyg- 
malion. 

the  antecedent  of  that  is  plays,  not  one.     The 
verb  should  therefore  be  have. 

b.  Nouns. 

Do  not  use  the  apostrophe  to  form  the  plural 
of  nouns. 

c.  Verbs.     See  Agreement  of  Subject  and  Verb. 

48.  Numbers,  Representation  of. 

a.  Do  not  spell  out  the  numbers  in  dates,  hours 
(when  A.M.  or  P.M.  is  used),  pages  or  sections 
of  books,  or  room  or  street  numbers. 

Right:  He  took  office  on  July  7, 1916,  at  1788  Jackson 

Avenue. 
Look  on  page  34  of  your  textbook. 

b.  Other  numbers  should  be  spelled  out  if  they  can 
be  written  in  one  or  two  words. 

Right:  Nineteen    hundred    men,  forty-six   men,    one 
thousand  men. 


108  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

c.  Do  not  begin  a  sentence  with  figures. 

Inadvisable:  63  5  men  from  our  college  entered  the  army. 
Right:  Six  hundred    and    thirty-five  men  from  our 
college  entered  the  army. 

d.  Except  in  cases  where  extreme  accuracy  is  de- 
sired do  not  repeat  a  number  in  parenthesized 
figures. 

Undesirable:  We  killed  ten  (10)   birds  and  two  (2) 

rabbits. 
Right:  We  killed  ten  birds  and  two  rabbits. 

e.  As  a  rule,  be  consistent  in  the  method  used  for 
representing  a  series  of  numbers. 

Undesirable:  In  our  library  there  are  3000  unbound 
pamphlets,  forty  thousand  bound  vol- 
umes, 1,400  bound  magazines,  and  ten 
thousand  unclassified  volumes. 

Right:  (Either  figures  or  words  throughout  the  sen- 
tence.) 

Omissions,  Marked  by  Comma.    See  21. 

49.  Omissions,  Incorrect.     Avoid   the   following   com- 
mon types  of  incorrect  omissions: 

a.  The  omission  of  part  of  a  verb  phrase. 

Wrong:  I   always  have  A  and   always  will  take  an 

interest  in  painting. 

Right:  I  always  have  taken  and  always  will  take  an 
interest  in  painting. 

b.  The  omission  of  a  copula  when  the  verb  be  is 
used  both  as  a  principal  and  as  an  auxiliary  verb. 

Wrong:  The  new  country  club  is  very  pretty  and  A 

praised  by  everybody. 

Right:  The  new  country  club  is  very  pretty  and  is 
praised  by  everybody. 


OVERLAPPING  DEPENDENCE  109 

c.  The  omission  of  an  article,  pronoun,  preposition, 
or  conjunction  necessary  to  the  accurate  expres- 
sion of  the  thought  of  a  sentence. 

What  effect  would  the  omission  of  the  itali- 
cized words  have  upon  the  following  sentences  ? 

Last  night  my  l^arn  and  my  garage  caught  fire. 
He  carried  a  red  and  a  black  flag. 
I  went  with  my  friend  and  my  brother. 
He  tried  to  interest  those  who  could  swim  or  sail 
and  to  play  games  with  the  others. 

d.  The  omission  of  than  or  as  in  a  double  compari- 
son. 

Wrong:  I  am  as  tall,  if  not  taller,  than  my  brother. 
Right  but  Awkward:  I  am  as  tall  as,  if  not  taller 

than,  my  brother. 
Permissible:  I  am  as  tall  as  my  brother,  if  not  taller. 

e.  The  omission  of  the  standard  of  comparison. 

Vague:  We  have  learned  to  appreciate  the  greater 
adaptability  of  the  American  soldier. 

Clear:  We  have  learned  to  appreciate  the  greater 
adaptability  of  the  American  soldier  as 
compared  to  the  German. 

50.  Order  of  Words.    See  pp.  48-52. 

51.  Overlapping  Dependence.     Rewrite  a  sentence  that 
contains  a  series  of  similar  clauses  in  an  overlapping 
construction. 

Bad:  He  dropped  out  of  college,  for  his  father  needed 
him  to  help  in  his  business,  for  it  had  been 
seriously  injured  by  the  war. 

Better:  He  dropped  out  of  college,  for  his  father  needed 
him  to  help  in  his  business,  which  had  been 
seriously  injured  by  the  war. 


110  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

A  series  of  overlapping  for,  which,  and  (so)  that 
clauses  is  especially  to  be  avoided. 

52.  Parallelism.    See  pp.  37-40. 

Parenthetical  Expressions,  Punctuation  of.    See  22. 
Participial  Phrases,  Punctuation  of.     See  22. 

53.  Period,  Uses  of. 

a.  Use  a  period  after  every  declarative  sentence. 
The  slovenly  omission  of  the  period  (or  question 
mark  or  exclamation  point)  is  inexcusable. 

b.  Use  a  period  after  abbreviations:  Ga.,  i.e.,  Mr., 
LL.D. 

54.  Period  Fault.    See  pp.  9-1 1 . 
Period-ioT-Comma.     See  54. 

55.  Point  of  View,  Shifting. 

a.  Avoid  shifting  from  active  to  passive  or  from 
passive  to  active  within  the  sentence. 

Wrong:  He  came  back  to  college  in  the  fall,  and  all 
his  energies  were  exerted  in  making  a 
soldier  of  himself. 

Right:  He  came  back  to  college  in  the  fall  and  ex- 
erted all  his  energies  in  making  a  soldier  of 
himself. 

See  also  pp.  63-64. 

b.  Avoid  the  unnecessary  change  of  subject  in  the 
clauses  of  a  sentence. 

Wrong:  We  went  through  a  cotton  mill,  where  the 

operatives  interested  us  greatly. 
Right:  We  went  through  a  cotton  mill,  where  we 

were  greatly  interested  in  the  operatives. 
See  also  pp.  63—64. 

c.  Avoid  shifting  the  tense  from  past  to  present  or 


USES  OF  QUOTATION  MARKS  111 

from  present  to  past  in  narration.     Choose  one 
tense  and  use  it  throughout.   See  also  pp.  64-65. 

56.  Possessive  with  Gerunds.     As  a  rule,  the  noun  or 
pronoun  modifying  a  gerund  should  be  put  in  the 
possessive  case: 

He  slipped  away  without  any  one's  seeing  him. 

The  object  of  the  preposition  without  in  this  sen- 
tence is  the  gerund  seeing. 
Which  is  preferable: 

I  cannot  conceive  of  him  doing  it? 
or 

I  cannot  conceive  of  his  doing  it? 

With  nouns  or  phrases  with  which  it  would  be 
awkward  to  use  the  possessive  case  it  need  not  be 
used.  It  would  be  awkward  to  use  the  possessive 
in  such  a  sentence  as 

I  cannot  conceive  of  Richard,  who  is  my  friend, 
doing  such  a  thing. 

Precision.    See  36. 
Provincialisms.    See  36. 

57.  Punctuation  at  the  Beginning  of  a  Line.    Punctuation 
marks  should  never  be  written  at  the  beginning  of 
a    line,   except   dashes,  parentheses,  and   quotation 
marks. 

58.  Quotation  Marks,  Uses  of. 

a.  Every  direct  quotation  should  be  inclosed  by 
quotation  marks. 

Example:  He  said,  "I  will  come  at  once." 
See  also  35. 


112  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

b.  A  quotation  within  a  quotation  should  be  in- 
closed by  single  quotation  marks. 

Example:  The  witness  said,  "I  heard  the  defendant 
say,  1 1  had  no  idea  that  my  enemy  was 
in  town  that  day.' " 

c .  A  technical  word  or  a  word  used  in  a  special,  un- 
usual, ironical,  or  humorous  way  may  sometimes 
be  inclosed  by  quotation  marks. 

Examples:  The  pilot  gave  orders  to  "  luff  round." 

Oscar    Wilde  speaks  of   his   hero's   going 

"Bunburying." 
Cautions: 

1.  Do  not  insult  your  reader's  intelligence  by 
labeling  your  humor  or  irony. 

2.  When    slang   or  technical   expressions   are 
used  in  a   slang  or  technical  context  they 
should  not  be  inclosed  by  quotation  marks. 

d.  Titles  of  short  poems,  short  stories,  pictures,  and 
subdivisions  of  books  are  generally  inclosed  by 
quotation  marks.     Names  of  books,  magazines, 
and  papers  are  ordinarily  italicized. 
Examples:  "I    Have   a    Rendezvous    with   Death," 

"The  Man  Who  Was,"  "The  Angelus"; 
The  Scarlet  Letter,  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post. 

e.  Never  employ  quotation  marks  without  good 
reason. 

59.  Reference^  Unexpressed  or  Vague.  Avoid  ambiguity 
and  obscurity  by  making  the  reference  of  every  pro- 
noun or  adjective  absolutely  clear. 

Vague:  John  told  his  father  that  he  would  soon  be  nomi- 
nated. 


RELATIVE  PRONOUNS  113 

Undesirable:  John  told  his  father  that  he  (John)  would  soon  be 
nominated. 

Right:  John  told  his  father  that  he  expected  to  be  nomi- 
nated soon. 

Vague:  He  is  guilty  of  carelessness  in  his  work,  which 
has  prevented  him  from  holding  a  good  posi- 
tion. 

Right:  He  is  guilty  of  carelessness  in  his  work,  which 
weakness  has  prevented  him  from  holding  a 
good  position. 

Right:  He  is  guilty  of  carelessness  in  his  work.  This 
weakness  has  prevented  him  from  holding  a 
good  position. 

See  also  3,  47,  and  pp.  61-62. 
60.  Relative  Pronouns. 

a.  The  relative  pronoun  agrees  in  gender  with  its 
antecedent. 

1.  Use  who  or  that  for  persons,  which  for  things. 

Note :  Which  may  refer  to  a  group  of  per- 
sons regarded  as  an  impersonal  unit,  as  in 

The  jury,  which  had  just  reached  a  decision, 
now  entered  the  room. 

2.  As   a   rule,  do   not  use  whose  to  refer  to 

things. 

Undesirable:  He  very  warmly  praised  the  new 
law,  whose  success  had  been  re- 
markable. 

Better:  He  very  warmly  praised  the  new 
law,  the  success  of  which  had 
been  remarkable. 

b.  The  relative  pronoun  agrees  in  person  with  its 
antecedent: 

It  is  I  who  am  (not  is)  to  blame. 


114  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

c.  The  case  of  a  relative  pronoun  in  no  way  depends 
upon  the  case  of  the  antecedent,  but  is  determined 
by  the  use  of  the  pronoun  in  the  sentence. 

61.  Repetition. 

a.  Avoid  the  monotonous  repetition  of  the  same 
word  or  phrase. 

Bad:  He  said  that  his  father  said  that  he  thought 
that  the  business  would  soon  be  on  a 
sound  basis. 

Better:  He  said  that  his  father  thought  the  business 
would  soon  be  on  a  sound  basis. 

b.  Avoid  the  careless  repetition  of  the  conjunction 
that. 

Example:  He  said  that  if  there  were  no  more  heavy 
rains  that  we  should  be  able  to  take  the 
trip.  (Omit  either  that.) 

Repetition  for  Clearness.    See  49. 

62.  Restrictive  and  Non-Restrictive  Modifiers.    Note  the 
difference  between  the  relative  clauses  in  the  follow- 
ing sentences: 

Restrictive:  Water  that  is  stagnant  is  unwholesome. 
Non-Restrictive:  The  water,  which  gently  lapped  the  sides 
of  our  boat,  was  clear  as  crystal. 

Test:  If  the  relative  clause  in  the  first  sentence  is 
omitted  we  have  the  astounding  statement:  "Water 
is  unwholesome."  The  omission  of  the  restrictive 
clause  completely  changes  the  meaning  of  the  sentence. 
If  we  omit  the  relative  clause  in  the  second  sentence,  we 
merely  subtract  a  subordinate  thought  from  our  sentence. 
The  assertion  of  the  main  clause,  however,  remains  essen- 
tially the  same. 


SHALL  AND  WILL  115 

Remember  that  commas  should  be  used  to  set  off 
non-restrictive  expressions  and  that  no  commas 
should  be  used  with  restrictive  expressions.  See  20. 

63.  Semicolon.     See  pp.  21-22. 

64.  Shall  and  Will.     Note  the  following  common  uses  of 
shall  and  will,  and  of  should  and  would:  — 

a.  In  independent  clauses,  to  express  simple  futur- 
ity use: 

I      (shall     )  He      iWl11,,  (-come. 

Wei  should  I00™'  TheylW°uldi 

b.  In  independent  clauses,  to  express  determination 
or  promise  use: 


You    (  ,          -) 

T      f     MI      ^  TT         J  shall     f 

I      Twill  He      \          .,  f 

nr   \         u(  come.  r-,        I  should  \ 

We  (  would  >  They   ( 


come. 


c.  In  dependent  clauses  shall  or  will  follows  a  main 
verb  in  the  present  tense,  should  or  would  one  in 
the  past  tense. 

Examples:  I  think  that  he  will  come. 

I  thought  that  he  would  come. 

d.  In  most  dependent  clauses  use  shall  and  should 
for  all  persons  to  express  simple  futurity,  will 
and  would  to  express  promise  or  determination. 

Note:  An  exception  is  a  noun  clause  in  indirect 
discourse  in  which  the  subject  is  different  from 
that  of  the  main  clause.  In  such  a  case  use 
rules  a-b. 

Examples:  I  said  that  he  would  be  present  at  our 

meeting.     (Rule  a}. 

I   swore  that    he    should  be    present    at 
->ur  meeting.     (Rule  b). 


A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

e.  In  questions  where  the  subject  is  in  the  second  or 
third  person,  use  the  form  (shall,  should;  zvill, 
would)  expected  in  the  answer. 

Examples:  Shall  you  be  present  at  our  meeting?  I 
shall  (futurity).  Will  you  be  present  at 
our  meeting?  I  will  (promise). 

Shifting  Point  of  View.    See  55. 
Slang.    See  36. 

65.  So,  Uses  of.  So  and  the  other  conjunctive  adverbs 
give  the  beginner  much  trouble.  The  following 
cautions  will  prove  helpful. 

a.  Remember    that  the  conjunctive  adverbs  are 
different  from  simple  adverbs  only  in  the  fact 
that  the  former  are  sometimes  used  to  connect 
clauses. 

b.  Remember  that  when  so  is  used  as  a  connective, 
the  clause  it  introduces  should  be  set  off  from  the 
preceding  clause  by  a  semicolon  or  a  period,  not 
by  a  comma. 

Wrong:  The  rain  was  falling  in  torrents,  so  we  decided 

to  abandon  our  plans  for  the  trip. 
Right:  The  rain  was  falling  in  torrents;  so  we  decided 

to  abandon  our  plans  for  the  trip. 
Right:  The  rain  was  falling  in  torrents.    ,So  we  de- 
cided to  abandon  our  plans  for  the  trip. 
Right:  The  rain  was  falling  in  torrents,  and  so  we  de- 
cided to  abandon  our  plans  for  the  trip. 
Note  that  the  use  of  the  conjunction  and  relieves  so 
of  its  function  as  a  connective  and  reduces  it  to  a  pure 
adverb. 

c.  Remember  that  the  use  of  a  conjunctive  adverb 
for  forming  a  compound  sentence  is  at  best  an 


SPELLING  117 

awkward  device  and  that  the  sentence  may  be 
improved  by  substituting  a  subordinate  clause 
for  one  of  the  principal  clauses. 

Weak:  The  rain  was  falling  in  torrents;  so  we  decided 
to  stay  at  home. 

Better:  Since  the  rain  was  falling  in  torrents,  we  de- 
cided to  stay  at  home. 

d.  Do  not  use  the  adverb  so  as  the  loose  equivalent 
of  very,  exceedingly,  etc. 

Vague:  I  am  so  tired  to-day.     (How  tired  is  so  tired  ?) 
Clear:  I  am  very  tired  to-day. 
Clear:  I  am  so  tired  to-day  that  I  can  hardly  work. 

66.  Spelling.  There  is  no  excuse  for  frequent  errors  in 
spelling.  The  habit  of  consulting  a  dictionary  when- 
ever in  doubt  as  to  the  correct  spelling  of  a  word  is  the 
only  safe  remedy.  But  the  following  rules  may  be 
of  some  service. 

a.  Distinguish  sharply  between  single  and  double 
consonants  in  such  words  as  appetite,  artillery, 
compelled,  control,  until. 

b.  Do  not  confuse  words  of  similar  or  of  identical 
sound,  such  as  too,  to,  two;  sight,  site,  cite;  lead 
(noun),    led'    mine,    mind;    quiet,    quite;   strait, 
straight. 

c.  Do  not  confuse  c  and  s  in  such  words  as  advice, 
advise,  ancestor^  decide,  precede,  sense,  consent, 
preserve. 

d.  Do  not  confuse  the  suffixes  -ance,  -ence;  -ant,  -ent; 
-ar,  -er  in  such  words  as  superintendent,    inde- 
pendence, existence,  vacant,  different,  intelligence, 
grammar. 

e.  Distinguish    sharply    both    in    spelling    and   in 


118  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

speaking  between  e  and  i,  as  in  despair,  whither -, 
whether,  disease,  divided. 

f.  Distinguish  between  ei  and  ie  in  such  words  as 
achieve,  chief,  field,  relieve,  believe.      Remember 
that  as  a  general  rule  i  follows  /,  and  e  follows  c 
as  in  the  word  Celia  or  license. 

g.  Remember  that  words  in  final  silent  e  usually 
drop  the  final  -e  before  a  vowel  of  the  suffix,  as 

use  +  ing  >  using, 
make  +  ing  >  making, 
choose  +  ing  >  choosing. 

h.  Poor  spellers  should  remember  that  mispronun- 
ciation results  in  misspelling,  as  in  athzlete, 
sophomore,  referee. 

67,  Split  Infinitive.     Although  the  split  infinitive  (to  + 
adverb  +    infinitive)  is  defended  by  some  writers,  the 
best  writers  use  it  only  rarely  or  never. 

Bad:  He  began  to  suddenly  hesitate  in  his  speech. 
Better:  He  began  suddenly  to  hesitate  in  his  speech. 

68.  Subjunctive.     Do  not  substitute  the  indicative  for 
the  subjunctive  in  the  following  cases: 

a.  To  express  a  condition  contrary  to  fact,  or  one 
clearly  uncertain: 

Wrong:  If  he  was  only  able  to  play,  we  should  win  the 

game. 

Right:  If  he  were  only  able  to  play,  we  should  win  the 
game. 

b.  To  express  a  wish. 

Right:  Oh,  that  he  were  able  to  play!     (A  present  re- 
gret, or  a  wish  unfulfilled  for  the  present.) 


TENSE  119 

Right:  Oh,  that  he  had  been  able  to  play!     (A  past 
regret.) 

69.  Subordination.    See  pp.  27-33. 

70.  Such  as.  Punctuation  of.     When  such  as  is  used  to 
introduce  an  example  or  a  series  of  examples,  it  should 
be  preceded  by  a  comma: 

I  have  many  things  to  do  to-day,  such  as  writing  let- 
ters, settling  my  accounts,  packing  my  trunk,  and  buying 
my  ticket. 

71.  Suspense.    See  pp.  51-52. 

72.  Syllabication. 

A  hyphen  should  be  used  to  mark  the  division  of  a 
word  at  the  end  of  a  line. 

When  in  doubt  as  to  the  proper  division  of  a  word 
into  syllables,  consult  a  good  dictionary. 

Never  divide  a  word  unless  the  division  is  necessary. 

73.  Tangled  Constructions.    See  pp.  57-58. 

74.  Tense.    Note  carefully  the  following  cautions: 

a.  Observe  the  proper  sequence  of  tenses. 

Wrong:  I  told  him  to  come  as  soon  as  he  can. 
Right:  I  told  him  to  come  as  soon  as  he  could. 

b.  Do  not  use  the  perfect  infinitive  except  to  denote 
an  action  completed  at.the  time  indicated  by  the 
main  verb. 

Wrong:  I  meant  to  have  told  you  about  it. 
Right:  I  meant  to  tell  you  about  it. 

c.  Do  not  use  a  present  participle  unless  it  denotes 
an  action  going  on  at  the  same  time  as  the  action 
indicated  by  the  main  verb. 


120  A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

Wrong:  Coming  of  age  on  June  5,  he  was  able  to  go 

into  business  for  himself  in  July. 
Right:  Having  come  of  age  on  June  5,  he  was  able  to 
go  into  business  for  himself  in  July. 

d.  Distinguish  sharply  between  the  principal  parts 
of  such  verbs  as  come,  take,  see,  go,  eat,  and  drink. 

75.  Title,  Correct  Form  of. 

a.  Capitalize  every  important  word  in  the  title. 

b.  Do  not  put  the  title  in  quotation  marks  and  do 
not  italicize  it  unless  the  rules  for  capitalization 
or  italicizing  call  for  such  punctuation. 

c.  Leave  a  space  of  at  least  an  inch  between  the 
title  and  the  top  of  the  page  and  between  the  title 
and  the  first  line  of  the  body  of  the  theme. 

d.  Do  not  omit  important  words  in  the  title  of 
themes,  such  as  Trip  through  Mexico  for  A  Trip 
through  Mexico,  or  Mistakes  in  College  for  The 
Mistakes  One  May  Make  in  College. 

e.  The  title  and  the  first  sentence  of  the  theme 
should  be  independent  of  each  other.    The  open- 
ing sentence  (or  sentences)  of  the  theme  should 
be  immediately  clear  to  the  reader  without  refer- 
ence to  the  title. 

Titles,  Punctuation  of.     See  22  and  53. 

76.  Transition.    See  pp.  66-68. 

77.  Triteness.    See  36  and  pp.  46-47. 

78.  Unity.    See  pp.  1-2,  8-n. 

79.  Vagueness.    See  pp.  61-62. 
Vocatives.    See  16. 
Vulgarisms.    See  36. 


WORDINESS  121 

80.  Wordiness.     Avoid  the  use  of  unnecessary  words: 

Wordy:  It  was  a  clear,  starry  night,  and  not  a  cloud  was 
to  be  seen.  (The  thought  is  needlessly  re- 
peated.) 

I  shall  never  forget  the  first  time  I   ascended 
up  in  a  balloon.     (Up  is  redundant.) 

For  a  detailed  discussion  of  wordiness  see  38,  61, 
and  pp.  56-58. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY,  CA  94720 


Ltl)  Zl— 1U 


M41883 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


A  LIST  OF  COMMON  ERRORS 

1.  Abbreviations. 

2.  Adjective  for  Adverb. 

3.  Agreement  of  Subject  and  Verb. 

4.  Ambiguity. 

5.  "And which." 

6.  Apostrophe. 

7.  Capitalization. 

8.  Case. 

9.  Clearness. 

10.  Climax. 

11.  Coherence. 

12.  Colon. 

13.  Comma  to  set  off  Appositives. 

14.  Comma  in  Compound  Sentences. 

15.  Comma  after  Dependent  Clause. 

16.  Comma  in  Direct  Address. 

17.  Comma  Fault. 

18.  Comma  before  for. 

19.  Comma  with  Geographical  Expressions  and  Dates. 

20.  Comma  to  set  off  Non-Restrictive  Modifiers. 

21.  Comma  to  mark  Omissions. 

22.  Comma  to  mark  Parenthetical  Expressions. 

23.  Comma  to  set  off  Participial  Phrases. 

24.  Comma  to  Prevent  Misreading. 

25.  Comma  in  a  Series. 

26.  Comma,  Unnecessary. 

27.  Compound  Sentences,  Stringy. 

28.  Conjunctions. 

29.  Conjunctive  Adverbs,  Semicolon  before. 

30.  Connectives. 

31.  Coordination,  Excessive,  or  Illogical. 

32.  Dangling  Elliptical  Clause,  Gerund,  or  Participle. 

33.  Dash. 

34.  Dialogue,  Paragraphing  of. 

35.  Dialogue,  Punctuation  of. 

36.  Diction. 

37.  Double  Negative. 

38.  Economy. 

39.  Emphasis. 


TB  02209 


40.  Euphony. 

41.  Hyphen,  Uses  of. 

42.  Italics,  Uses  of. 

43.  Like  for  As. 

44.  Modifiers  Misplaced. 

45.  Monotonous  Sentence  Structure. 

46.  Namely,  That  Is,  Punctuation  of. 

47.  Number. 

48.  Numbers,  Representation  of. 

49.  Omissions,  Incorrect. 

50.  Order  of  Words. 

51.  Overlapping  Dependence. 

52.  Parallelism 

53.  Period,  Uses  of. 

54.  Period  Fault. 

55.  Point  of  View,  Shifting. 

56.  Possessive  with  Gerunds. 

57.  Punctuation  at  the  Beginning  of  a  Line; 

58.  Quotation  Marks,  Uses  of. 

59.  Reference,  Unexpressed  or  Vague. 

60.  Relative  Pronouns. 

61.  Repetition. 

62.  Restrictive  and  Non-Restrictive  Modifiers. 

63.  Semicolon. 

64.  Shall  and  Will. 

65.  So,  Uses  of. 

66.  Spelling. 

67.  Split  Infinitive. 

68.  Subjunctive. 

69.  Subordination. 

70.  Such  As,  Punctuation  of. 

71.  Suspense. 

72.  Syllabication. 

73.  Tangled  Constructions. 

74.  Tense. 

75.  Title,  Correct  Form  of. 

76.  Transition. 

77.  Triteness. 

78.  Unity. 

79.  Vagueness. 

80.  Wordiness. 


